France also records its first case of the "English variant"
of Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health announces it.
Covid infections continue to rise in Tokyo
, while the latest developments on the English variant of the virus intercepted yesterday for the first time in Japan are worrying, and which today has marked two other cases. The metropolitan government reported 949 positivity today, exceeding 888 on Friday, and bringing the total sum in the capital to 55,812: the highest of all 47 prefectures in the country. Yesterday the government had identified five people carrying the highly contagious virus discovered in England, four men and a woman who landed at Osaka and Tokyo airports from Great Britain. Two other individuals, reports the Ministry of Health, were infected within the same family unit. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged the population to reduce travel in conjunction with the start of the festive holidays which in Japan mainly coincide with the beginning of the new year. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the health authorities of the capital have raised the level of emergency to the highest level of alert. The city's restaurants, bars and karaoke bars have been asked to close at 10pm earlier until the second half of January.