OSAKA: Three residents of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, with no history of recent overseas travel, were confirmed Wednesday to have the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, the prefectural government said.

“Community-acquired infections have been confirmed,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told a news conference. The three cases are believed to be the first such omicron infections confirmed in Japan.

The infection routes for the new cases are not yet known, according to the prefectural government.

The three are a couple in their 30s who had each received two COVID-19 vaccine shots and a preschool daughter. They are showing light symptoms and have already been hospitalized.

They were found infected with the new strain in genomic analysis.

Two other preschool children in the family have also been confirmed infected with the coronavirus and have been hospitalized.

Three relatives who have been in close contact with the family will be asked to stay at a designated hotel. Coronavirus tests are being carried out on people at workplaces and facilities used by the infected family.

“We regard (the three) as community-acquired infections and will take thorough countermeasures,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters in Tokyo the same day.

According to the health ministry, 85 cases of the omicron variant had been confirmed in Japan as of Tuesday. They were either found infected at airport quarantines or were cases whose infection routes had been identified, such as close contacts with omicron carriers.

Africa, Europe and the United States are seeing community transmissions of the omicron variant. The Japanese government has responded by ramping up border measures and testing regimes.

After confirming the community-acquired infections, the Osaka prefectural government decided to maintain its request that dining at restaurants and bars be limited to four people per table and be finished in about two hours, a measure it had planned to lift at the end of this month.

JIJI Press