Japan reports first domestically acquired Omicron infection

FILE PHOTO: A notice about COVID-19 safety measures is pictured next to closed doors at a departure hall of Narita international airport on the first day of closed borders to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus Omicron variant in Narita, east of Tokyo, Japan, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
FILE PHOTO: A notice about COVID-19 safety measures is pictured next to closed doors at a departure hall of Narita international airport on the first day of closed borders to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus Omicron variant in Narita, east of Tokyo, Japan, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Thursday a staff member at a facility housing people found positive with coronavirus after arriving in the country had tested positive for Omicron, in the first case of a domestically-acquired infection of the variant.

The infected person, a woman in her 30s who belongs to the quarantine station at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, has no recent history of travelling overseas, the health ministry said.

"It is strongly suspected that the infection took place within the facility ... This woman is now in hospital and her condition is stable," a health ministry official said at a media briefing. The official declined to specify what type of tasks she had performed at the facility.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Editing by William Maclean)

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