Covid: fear Omicron, Japan closes borders to foreigners

(ANSA) - TOKYO, NOV 29 - Japan will close its borders to all foreign visitors, against the risk of the Micron variant of Covid-19.

The Japanese government announced this today, just three weeks after loosening some restrictions to allow foreign business travelers, students and interns to enter the country.

    "We have banned all (new) entries of foreign citizens from all over the world since November 30," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. The Japanese returning from nine southern African states and countries where infections with the new variant have been identified will have to undergo "stringent risk-based isolation measures," Kishida added. Japan, which has implemented border restrictions since the start of the pandemic, relaxed its measures at the beginning of November, but remained closed to tourists. The Japanese government announced on Friday an extension of the hotel quarantine to ten days for visitors from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe.Tokyo has extended this measure later this week for visitors arriving from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. (HANDLE).