Japan’s health authorities have confirmed Friday the first case of lambda COVID-19. The strain was detected in a woman in her 30s at Haneda Airport who arrived from Peru on July 20.
The lambda variant of the coronavirus is already acting, said the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID). The Japanese epidemiologists said that the lambda strain first identified in Peru has been found in Japan for the first time.
On Friday, the Japanese health ministry officials said that the infected woman tested positive for the coronavirus in a quarantine check at the airport, with no symptoms.
The new version of the novel pathogen was confirmed to be of the lambda variant in an analysis by the NIID. The virus was first detected in Peru in August last year and has been spreading in South America.
Lambda variant, more infectious
The lambda variant may be more infectious, the epidemiologists believe. In fact, the novel version has stronger resistance to vaccines, in comparison with the original, which caused the pandemic in December 2019. However, its details are not known, the NIID said.
Meanwhile, the Delta variant is challenging the part of the world that’s been most successful in blunting the economic impact of COVID-19, with Asian countries that snuffed it out locking down again as the virus returns.
The number of patients hospitalized with serious cases of COVID-19 in Japan rose to 1,020 as of Thursday, the highest since June, according to data from the nation’s health ministry.
More than 90 hotels are currently used to accommodate people coming into the country and those who have been in contact with COVID-19 cases. The surge in new COVID-19 infections is due to the fast-spreading delta variant, which has swept across the globe. Now, the Asia Pacific region suffers from the Delta variant.
The Philippines included more cities and provinces under lockdown, while Laguna, Iloilo City and Cagayan De Oro were placed under enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman said late Thursday.
