On Monday, the Japanese government has imposed a recent travel ban for foreign nationals in an effort to stop the omicron variant from spreading domestically.
The ban will not affect Japanese nationals or foreign residents returning to the country, The Japan Times reported.
However, people who will be returning from countries where the Omicron variant has been detected will have to isolate at a government facility for three to 10 days.
“This is a preventative, emergency measure to avoid a worst-case scenario,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
“Research is needed to determine how contagious the omicron variant is globally,” he said. “And whether vaccines are still effective in preventing transmission or severe symptoms.”
“It’s crucial that we respond to the situation quickly and flexibly,” he added.
The country’s health ministry said that Japan’s daily entry capacity —which was raised to 5,000 travelers — will be lowered again to 3,500 on Wednesday.
“The country is buying time,” Koji Wada, a professor of public health at the International University of Health and Welfare and a member of the health ministry’s expert coronavirus panel said.
“If the variant hasn’t already arrived in Japan, it will soon, so the next challenge will be that of containment,” Wada explained.
“The country should use that time to raise its capacity for virus testing and genomic screening so that it can better detect the omicron variant,” Wada said. “That would give Japan a chance to get ahead and maybe prevent it from spreading rapidly.”
Entry to Japan from the African countries (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, and Angola) where the newly mutated virus was discovered had been tightened over the weekend.
According to experts, the Omicron could be more contagious than all previous variants of COVID-19.
Starting Tuesday, new entries to Japan will be strictly banned for one month.