As the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit people’s lives globally, new strains of the virus are being found in different parts of the world. Towards the end of the last year, a new strain of the coronavirus was detected in Britain and South Africa that was reported to be highly infectious.

Now, a new strain of coronavirus was found in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazon State, Japan Health Ministry reports. A ministry official said that studies are underway to find the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine against the new strain of the virus that is different from the one found in Britain and South Africa, Reuters reports.

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This virus found in Japan is not the same one found in Britain and South Africa and is not necessarily as highly infectious – as ongoing studies have shown.

“At the moment, there is no proof showing the new variant found in those from Brazil is high in infectiousness,” Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said, quoted Reuters.

One of the four travellers, who arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on January 2, was facing an issue breathing. Another woman had a headache and a sore throat and, a teenage boy had a fever. Another girl among the four travellers was the only one who did not show any symptoms, Reuters reports.

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Japanese national media has reported that the number of cases in the country has reached 280,000 and 4,061 deaths that have driven the government to declare an emergency in Tokyo and three other neighbouring prefectures.