COVID-19 in Japan news round-up
- Japan’s economy shrank in the first three months of this year as a soaring import bill and the hit from the omicron variant pushed its pandemic recovery into reverse, offering some support for the Bank of Japan’s view that stimulus should continue for now.
- A virus that shows no signs of disappearing, variants that are adept at dodging the body’s defenses and waves of infections two, maybe three times a year — this may be the future of COVID-19, some scientists now fear.
- The government is planning to launch in early June a test project to accept group package tourists from overseas, according to government officials.
- The Tokyo Medical Association is attracting attention for its recent proposal to review a request that children wear face masks as a precaution against COVID-19.
- Infection with the omicron variant of the coronavirus may have a role in recent cases of severe acute hepatitis in children, according to new research presented at a Japan health ministry panel meeting.
- Japan has detected its first cases of the BA.4 and BA. 5 omicron subvariants of the coronavirus in airport screening, the health ministry has said.
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