TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) – Japanese health officials are concerned that variants of the coronavirus are causing the fourth wave of the pandemic, with only 109 days to go before the Tokyo Olympics.
The variants appear to be more infectious and may be resistant to vaccines, which are not yet widely available in Japan. The situation is worse in Osaka, where infections reached new records last week, prompting the regional government to initiate blocking measures for a month from Monday.
A mutant variant of COVID-19 first discovered in Britain spread across the Osaka region, spreading faster and filling hospital beds with more serious cases than the original virus, according to Koji Wada, an adviser government on the pandemic.
“The fourth wave will be bigger,” said Wada, a professor at the Tokyo International University of Health and Wellness. “We need to start discussing how we could use these measures targeted at the Tokyo area.”
Japan twice declared the state of emergency that covered most of the country last year, most recently just after the New Year, when the third and deadliest wave of the pandemic occurred. Authorities are now opting for more targeted measures that allow local governments to shorten business hours and impose fines for non-compliance.
Osaka canceled the Olympic Torch relay events there, but Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga insisted that Japan will host the Games as scheduled. Suga said on Sunday that the measures employed in Osaka could be expanded to Tokyo and elsewhere, if necessary.
There were 249 new infections in Tokyo on Monday, still well below the peak of more than 2,500 in January. In Osaka, a record 666 cases were recorded on Saturday.
The true extent of the mutant cases is unknown, as only a small fraction of the positive COVID-19 cases are subjected to the genomic study necessary to find the variants.
A health ministry report last week showed that 678 cases of mutant variants from Britain, South Africa and Brazil were discovered across the country and at airports, with the largest clusters in Osaka and neighboring Hyogo prefecture.
But another strain, known as E484K, may be more widespread. About 70% of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried the mutation that was different from the British and South African varieties, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.
The case recovery came weeks after the government suspended state of emergency measures, and the priority measures being implemented now aim to stem an unexpected increase in mutant cases, said Makoto Shimoaraiso, an official in the Secretariat’s Office for the response. from Japan to COVID-19.
“We accept criticism when people say that we were unable to detect any variant,” he said. (Reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Giles Elgood)