TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman Masayoshi Son said Tuesday that 0.43 pct of more than 40,000 group employees, medical workers and others have been found positive in novel coronavirus antibody tests.

Of the 44,066 people who took the tests in Japan, 191 were positive, meaning they had coronavirus infections in the past, according to an announcement made by Son in an online conference.

The tests, conducted between May 12 and Monday, covered 38,216 employees of SoftBank Group businesses and client companies plus 5,850 medical workers.

Of the employees, 0.23 pct tested positive. The share was higher at 1.79 pct among the medical workers.

In Tokyo, 3.1 pct of the medical workers who took the tests were found positive, against 2.8 pct in Chiba Prefecture, 2.2 pct each in Osaka and Hiroshima prefectures, 2.0 pct in Hokkaido and 1.9 pct in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The results are important because they are generally in line with the outcomes of polymerase chain reaction tests by the health ministry, an infectious disease specialist of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine said in the online conference.

JIJI Press