TOKYO: Japan on Friday started requiring COVID-19 tests for all passengers arriving from China as an emergency measure against surging infections there and as Japan faces rising case numbers and record-level deaths at home.
Japan reported a record 420 new coronavirus deaths on Thursday, one day after reaching an earlier single-day record of 415 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.
The numbers are higher than the daily deaths at the peak of an earlier wave in August, when they exceeded 300. Experts say the reason for the latest increase is unclear but could be linked to deaths from the worsening of chronic illnesses among elderly patients.
Japan tightened its border measures on Friday, making the antigen test that was already conducted on entrants suspected of having COVID-19 mandatory for all people arriving from mainland China. Those who test positive will be quarantined for up to seven days at designated facilities and their samples will be used for genome analysis.
The measures began ahead of the New Year holidays marked by travel and parties. Direct flights between China and Japan will be limited to four major Japanese airports for now, government officials said.
Japan earlier this year stopped requiring COVID-19 tests for entrants who had at least three shots — part of the country’s careful easing of measures after virtually closing its borders to foreign tourists for about two years. This year’s holiday season is the first without virus restrictions other than recommendations for mask wearing and testing.
The country is now reporting about 200,000 known daily cases.
At a meeting earlier this week, experts cautioned that the rapid spread of influenza this winter also has the potential to add pressure to medical systems.
China recently reversed its anti-virus controls that kept the country in isolation for nearly three years and announced this week plans to reissue passports and visas for overseas trips. This could send many Chinese abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday in January, raising concerns about the possible spread of the virus.
India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan have also responded to the Chinese wave of infections by requiring virus tests for visitors from China. The United States said Wednesday it would require testing of all travelers from China beginning Jan. 5.
South Korea on Friday announced that it will also require travelers from China to show negative PCR test results within 48 hours or rapid antigen tests within 24 hours of their departures, beginning Jan. 5.
Japan tests all China arrivals for COVID-19 amid surging cases
https://arab.news/p378v
Japan tests all China arrivals for COVID-19 amid surging cases
- Direct flights between China and Japan will be limited to four major Japanese airports for now
- China recently reversed its anti-virus controls that kept it in isolation for nearly three years
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
