Health

Japan confirms first case of COVID-19 Omicron variant: Report

Japan on Tuesday confirmed its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, a day after authorities announced new COVID-19 border restrictions.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

“Regarding the traveler arriving from Namibia, it was confirmed to be a case of Omicron after analysis at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases,” government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

“This is the first Omicron case confirmed in Japan,” he said, adding that the infected traveler, a man in his 30s, is now in isolation at a medical facility.

The announcement came a day after Japan tightened its border rules again, barring all new foreign arrivals just weeks after relaxing tough regulations to allow some students and business travelers entry.

The new rules mean only Japanese citizens and existing foreign residents can enter the country, with few exemptions, and those coming from areas with known Omicron cases require hotel quarantines ranging from three to 10 days.

Japan has recorded just over 18,300 coronavirus cases during the pandemic, while avoiding tough lockdowns.

After a slow start, its vaccination program picked up speed and nearly 77 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

UAE residents have mixed feelings about travel amid COVID-19 variant Omicron

South Africa’s President calls for urgent reversal of travel bans over Omicron

Health

World Food Safety Day: ‘Nobody should die from eating food’

Every day, some 1.6 million people worldwide fall ill from eating contaminated food, which kills 420,000 people each year, two UN agencies said on Tuesday.

Health

World must ‘work as one’ to end plastic pollution: Guterres

As international negotiators committed to hammering out a draft treaty by November on ending plastic pollution, the UN chief stressed in his message for World Environment Day on Monday, the importance of curbing the “catastrophic” consequences of waste plastics.

Health

US state abortion bans ‘putting millions of women and girls at risk’

Millions of women and girls across the United States have suffered an alarming deterioration in access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, following the US Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Friday.