Lagatar24 Desk
Tokyo, Nov.29: Japan announced on Monday that it would prohibit foreigners from entering the country to prevent the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variation, joining Israel in the most stringent border controls seen since the variant’s discovery.
“To avoid a worst-case situation and as an emergency precautionary action,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters, “Japan will first bar the entry of foreigners into the country from midnight on November 30.”
He went on to say that Japanese returnees from a variety of countries will have to quarantine in special facilities.
Since Japan announced that it would tighten border controls on people arriving from six African countries, the action represented a quick escalation of restrictions.
It comes only weeks after Kishida’s administration lifted quarantine restrictions on foreign business travellers in order to bolster the economy.
In the absence of knowledge suggesting Omicron’s symptoms differed from those of other variants, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that determining the severity level of Omicron, which was originally found in South Africa, might take “days to several weeks.”
So far, no Omicron cases have been discovered in Japan. In a separate press conference, Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto said that one passenger from Namibia had tested positive for the coronavirus, and that more tests were being done to see if it was the new variety.
Since the WHO designated Omicron as a “variant of concern,” countries all around the world have adopted various border controls. However, until Kishida’s proclamation, Israel was the only country that prohibited all foreigners from entering.
