TOKYO (Reuters) – About 70% of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known to reduce vaccine protection, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.
The E484K mutation, nicknamed “Eek” by some scientists, was found in 10 of 14 people who tested positive for the virus at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March, the report said.
During the two months through March, 12 of the 36 COVID patients carried the mutation, with none of them recently traveling abroad or contacting people who had.
Hospital officials were not immediately available for comment.
Ahead of the Summer Olympics starting in July, Japan is facing a new wave of infections. Health experts are particularly concerned about the spread of mutant strains, even though large-scale vaccinations of the general population have not yet begun.
On Friday, 446 new infections were reported in Tokyo, although that is still well below the peak of more than 2,500 in January.
A record number of 666 cases were reported in Osaka. Health experts have expressed concern about the spread around that western metropolis of a mutated species known to have surfaced in Britain.
NHK said none of the patients at the Tokyo hospital carried the British strain.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by William Mallard