Tokyo Confirms First 6 Cases Of Covid Omicron Subvariant Xbb
The Tokyo Metropolitan government has announced the capital's first cases of the new coronavirus Omicron subvariant XBB.
On Thursday, experts tasked with assessing the coronavirus situation in Tokyo confirmed six infections of XBB in the prefecture.
They said as of October 17, seven cases had been detected at quarantine stations.
XBB is a mixture of different types of Omicron variants circulating in various parts of the world. It is rapidly spreading in Singapore. The percentage of the country's coronavirus patients infected by XBB jumped from 17.3 in mid-September to 60.7 this month.
It is not yet known how severe XBB symptoms are compared to other forms of coronavirus.
The head of Tokyo Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Kaku Mitsuo, said though XBB is spreading in Singapore and elsewhere, there's currently no sign it will become dominant worldwide. He said authorities should continue to monitor coronavirus trends in and out of Japan.