Japan shutting its borders to foreign travellers over Covid mutation

Japan reported Saturday that two more people had been infected with the new, potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant spreading in Britain, with one of them confirmed as the first domestically transmitted case.

It will temporarily suspend new entry into the country of nonresident foreign nationals from around the world from Monday through the end of January as a precautionary step against the variant, the government said.

The country saw the same day 3,877 coronavirus cases, a new record daily tally for the fourth straight day, and 46 deaths as Tokyo and several other prefectures reported the highest numbers of infections at the start of the year-end and New Year holidays.

The nation's cumulative total stood at 219,070.