Tokyo: Japan strengthens health controls at airports

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga vowed on Monday to tighten health checks at airports after a member of Uganda’s Olympic delegation tested positive for COVID-19 in the city where the training venue is located, causing fears that next month’s Tokyo Games could spread coronavirus infections.

A member of the Ugandan team, who is reported to be a coach, tested positive at Tokyo Narita airport on Saturday and has been quarantined there. But the rest of the nine-person team were allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) in a chartered bus to their pre-Olympic camp in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan.

Three days later, another Ugandan man tested positive for the virus, forcing seven village officials and drivers who had been in direct contact with the team to self-isolate. Team members have been quarantined at a local hotel.

Concerns increased after Ugandans were declared infected with the Delta type of virus, which is believed to spread more easily.

In response to criticism of the case, Suga went to Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport to check virus tests for incoming travelers and promised to ensure adequate border controls in the face of the surge in Olympic and Paralympic participants entering Japan. Before the opening of the Tokyo Games. Gala on July 23.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said later on Monday that the Japanese government plans to increase quarantine requirements for Olympians and other participants from areas where the delta variant has been detected. Among the measures are daily tests for the virus for seven days before traveling to Japan – to extend the current four-day period – and up to 14 days after entering Japanese territory, as well as training in isolation in the first. Three days.

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