Japanese Health Ministry finds new virus variant
Tokyo: The Japanese Health Ministry has found a coronavirus variant in people arriving from Brazil that's different from the ones in Britain and South Africa.
The variant was found in airport tests on a man in his 40s, a woman in her 30s, and two teens, the ministry said Sunday.
Japan was working with other nations, the WHO, and other medical experts to analyze the new version of the virus, and it was still unclear whether available vaccines would work.
The man who tested positive had no symptoms upon arrival but was hospitalized after his breathing became difficult. The woman suffered headaches, one teen, a male, had a fever, while the other female teen had no symptoms, according to the ministry.
About 30 cases of variants from Britain and South Africa have earlier been reported in Japan. Experts are worried the variants appear to spread faster.
Japan has declared a state of emergency for the Tokyo area, which kicked in Friday, asking restaurants and bars to close at 8 pm. Some have complained that's not enough, noting train stations and eateries are still packed, including at night.
Japan has had about 4,000 deaths related to COVID-19 so far, and more than 280,000 confirmed cases.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13; body of last missing person recovered
Jabalpur (PTI): The bodies of a five-year-old boy and his uncle were recovered from Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 13, police said.
The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
"The bodies of Mayuram (5) and his uncle Kamraj (around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, were found floating and were fished out of the dam," Bargi Sub Divisional Officer of Police Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI over the phone.
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All 13 missing persons identified have now been accounted for, he said, adding the bodies were sent to a government hospital for postmortem.
Teams comprising around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, along with personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were involved in the search operation, the police said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, according to the police.
The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, though the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
