Soma, a rural city 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Tokyo that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, has surged ahead of most of the country in vaccinations by heeding lessons learned from the catastrophe of a decade ago.
One new study has suggested that origin of the virus might not be in China suggesting antibodies to either the virus or a variant were detected in Italy in 2019. The Italian researchers stressed the findings raised questions about when the virus first emerged rather than where.
Vietnam has discovered a new Covid-19 variant which spreads quickly by air. It is believed to be a combination of the strains first found in India and Britain as health officials confirmed on Saturday.