Japan to tighten border controls for travelers from Vietnam and Malaysia

Japan plans to tighten its border controls to prevent the spread of more contagious variants of the coronavirus, asking travelers from Vietnam and Malaysia to stay in government-designated facilities for six days after arrival, according to government sources. It will also set the quarantine period at such facilities at 10 days for travelers from Afghanistan and three days for those from Thailand and some US states, the sources said Monday. Japan has already imposed a travel ban on 159 countries and regions, restricting entry of foreign nationals, including those with resident status, who have been to those countries within the past two weeks, except under special circumstances. The tightened border controls will mostly affect Japanese citizens returning to Japan. The government is on high alert for a coronavirus variant identified in Vietnam. Vietnamese health minister Nguyen Thanh Long has said that the Vietnamese variant is extremely dangerous as it is a hybrid of strains first found in Britain and India.<br/>