With the coronavirus still raging in Japan, one of the newest variants — lambda, which slipped into the country just ahead of the Tokyo Games — has sparked concern that this new version may raise the risk of transmission and put further strain on the nation’s health system.
Those worries over the variant have only grown in the wake of the health ministry’s announcement on Aug. 24 that two cases of lambda infection were found at Haneda Airport.
The unknowns surrounding the variant's traits and scarce information about it in Japan have sparked calls for stricter measures aimed at suppressing the spread of lambda amid fears the version may prove to be highly infectious.
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