TOKYO: Japanese economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura has tested negative for the novel coronavirus after a member of the Cabinet Office staff was found to be infected late last week.

Nishimura, who oversees the government's economic response to the coronavirus epidemic, was found not to be infected after he took a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test, the Cabinet Office said Sunday. He had not shown any symptoms of the coronavirus.

The infected staff member, who is on the Cabinet Office's novel coronavirus response team, accompanied the minister on an inspection visit on April 19. The staff member was confirmed to have the virus on Friday.

Nishimura canceled all public duties such as press conferences on Saturday to go into seclusion.

"I checked with a public health center, and it said I was not in close contact (with the infected staff)," he said during a video appearance on a program of Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK, on Saturday night. "But I am working from home, just in case so that I don't spread the infection."

"We need to exercise utmost caution, recognizing that we all bear the risk of being infected, and at the same time the risk of infecting others," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the same day.

JIJI Press