A study carried out by the Medical Hospital of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University during the month of March has concluded that 70% of the coronavirus patients analyzed in the hospital were carriers of an E484K mutation, baptized as ‘Eek’.
Specifically, this variant was detected in 10 of the 14 people who tested positive at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March. In the previous two months, it was detected in 12 of 36 Covid patients, and none of them had recently traveled abroad or been in contact with people who had, according to the report. This strain is known to reduce vaccine protection, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday.
On the eve of the Summer Olympics, which is scheduled to start in July, Japan is battling a new wave of infections. Health experts are especially concerned, Reuters reports, about the spread of new variants, when large-scale vaccination of the population has not yet started.
On Friday there were 446 new infections in Tokyo, a figure that is still well below the peak of more than 2,500 in January. In Osaka, a record 666 cases were reached. Health experts have raised concerns about the spread around the western metropolis of a mutant strain known to have emerged in Britain.
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