Khaldon Azhari

TOKYO: Japanese Health Minister Goto revealed that the Namibian citizen who was found to be infected with the COVID-19 Omicron mutation strain upon his arrival at Narita Airport on Sunday, is a diplomat from the Namibian Embassy in Tokyo and he is in his thirties.

The minister told a press conference that the infected diplomats was suffering from a slight fever, and that the authorities were taking the necessary health precautions towards the 71 close-contacts’ passengers who were with him on the plane. This is the first case of this variant recorded in Japan.

Further, Tokyo Metropolitan Government revealed that out of about 70 close contacts who were in the place with the confirmed infected Namibian diplomats, about 40 are residents of Tokyo. All of them have been confirmed to be negative by airport quarantine, but the city has requested that about 40 people move to accommodation facilities and spend a period of quarantine.

Japanese officials, meanwhile, said the ban on foreign arrivals to the country, imposed today, has exceptions for those with “special humanitarian needs” and those who represent “special interests for Japan.” All other foreigners with no residency status in Japan will be barred from entering the country for one month effective today.

Officials noted, however, that such restrictions can be reviewed, downscaled, or increased with new measures according to the situation that is changing with everyday. “We will make necessary judgment in flexible and agile manners to cope with the situation,” an official from the cabinet secretariat told an online news conference organized by Jason’s Foreign Press Center.

Measures inside Japan “depend on the situation,” he said.

Airlines all over the world are asked to stop boarding foreigners without visa on planes coming to Japan, according to an official belongs to the immigration agency in Tokyo.

Japan has recently relaxed restriction as coronavirus infection rate has decreased considerably. The discovery of the new Omicron variant might force the government to return to the strict measures adopted about two years ago when coronavirus spread.