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Japan halts new entry from around world to block new virus variant
The government will also require Japanese citizens and foreign residents coming from countries and territories where the new variant is confirmed to submit negative virus test results within 72 hours of departure and undergo tests upon arrival from Wednesday through the end of January.
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Officers wearing face masks and shields, amid concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, monitor passengers arriving at Narita airport, Chiba prefecture on March 9, 2020. (AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi)
J
apan on Monday suspended new entry into the country by nonresident foreign nationals from around the world through the end of January as it seeks to prevent the spread of the new, potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant, first detected in Britain but since confirmed in other parts of the world.
The government will also require Japanese citizens and foreign residents coming from countries and territories where the new variant is confirmed to submit negative virus test results within 72 hours of departure and undergo tests upon arrival from Wednesday through the end of January.
Businesspeople and students from 11 nations with which Japan has a special scheme to ease travel restrictions, such as China and South Korea, are not affected by the latest measure.
Starting Thursday, Tokyo has already banned entry by foreign nationals who have recently been to Britain and South Africa, where the new variant has also been detected.
British health officials have said the new strain, first detected in September, could be up to 70 percent more transmissible but there was no evidence of it being deadlier or capable of evading immunity induced by vaccines.
In Japan, several people have been confirmed to be infected with the variant so far. They include an airline pilot who returned from London on Dec. 16 and a woman in his family who has no history of visiting Britain.
While the country had been slowly opening up to international travel as it seeks to lift its battered economy and prepare for the rescheduled Olympics next summer, it shifted back toward tightening its borders as the medical system has been significantly strained by a spike in the number of coronavirus cases. Japan confirmed a record 3,881 coronavirus cases on Saturday.
In an effort to prevent the pandemic from further straining hospitals' ability to treat COVID-19 patients during the year-end and New Year holidays, when there are usually fewer medical personnel on duty, the government also suspended the same day its "Go To Travel" tourism promotion campaign through Jan. 11.
On Dec. 14, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the decision to expand the suspension of the campaign subsidizing up to half of people's travel expenses to the entire nation after having halted it for trips to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Hiroshima, which have seen a notable increase in infections.
The nationwide halt of the campaign, which started in July to help the country's tourism industry hit hard by the pandemic, is estimated to cause economic damage totaling more than 318.7 billion yen ($308 billion) through Jan. 3, with a 73 percent drop in the number of travelers from last year, according to JTB Tourism Research and Consulting Co.
Adventure, the operator of travel reservation website Skyticket, said about 4,000 of the roughly 6,000 reservations made for the suspended period have been canceled since Dec. 14.
