"Omicron Confirmed Patient Went to Soccer Stadium Despite Fever and Cough Symptoms"… Signs of Spread in Japan

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Sumi Hwang] Signs of local transmission of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 are spreading in Japan as well.

According to local media including the Mainichi Shimbun on the 18th, it was confirmed on the 16th that a Kansai International Airport quarantine staff member was infected with the Omicron variant.

This is the first case of Omicron infection in a person without recent overseas travel history.

In Tokyo, a close contact B of patient A, who was infected with the Omicron variant after returning from the United States, was also infected with Omicron.

At the time, patient A tested negative for COVID-19 at airport quarantine and was under home isolation. However, it was reported that A violated the pledge to avoid contact with others during the two-week quarantine and met with B at home.

B experienced symptoms such as coughing and fever on the 10th, immediately after meeting A, but watched a soccer game held in Kawasaki near Tokyo on the 12th. B also went to work at a company in Tokyo on the 13th.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government had about 80 people around B at the soccer game and about 170 people working on the same floor at the company undergo COVID-19 testing.

Additionally, a man in his 50s working at a U.S. military base in Okinawa was also found to be infected with the Omicron variant. At the U.S. military base where this man worked, 99 people, including Marines, were infected in a cluster.

Okinawa Prefecture requested confirmation of the Omicron variant, but the U.S. military did not respond, Kyodo News reported.

So far, the total number of confirmed Omicron infections in Japan is 50, including 14 confirmed the previous day. The number of Omicron variant infections detected during airport quarantine is also increasing.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported, "As confirmations of (Omicron variant infections) continue at airport quarantine and elsewhere, experts suspect that local transmission may already be occurring."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.