3 Russian participants in Kanazawa ice show found with new flu

Monday 29th June, 05:18 AM JST

KANAZAWA —

Three Russian nationals visiting Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, to take part in a figure skating show have been confirmed infected with the new stain of influenza, the Kanazawa municipal government said Sunday. The three; a woman in her 20s, and a man and woman in their 30s who are performers and show staff are in stable condition and resting at their hotel, it said, adding they require no hospitalization. The city has asked eight other people taking part in the show who were in close contact with the three to refrain from going out or participating in the show, the local government said.

Popular Japanese skaters such as Shizuka Arakawa, a 2006 Turin Olympic gold medalist, Nobunari Oda and the 2007 world champion Miki Ando, are taking part in the show. But they are not among those who had been in close contact with the three, show organizers said. The organizers said the show will go on as scheduled but performers will refrain from coming close to members of the audience. According to the local government, the three Russian participants flew to the Tokyo International Airport at Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Wednesday and moved on to the city for the two-day ice show starting Saturday. They became the first confirmed new-flu case in the city.

Kyodo

› Login to comment

10 Comments

some14some at 07:02 AM JST - 29th June

first victims of j-tourism minister's "safety" announcement.
YuriOtani at 08:16 AM JST - 29th June

Hope they get well soon. It must be hard to get sick away from your home.
Apsara at 08:25 AM JST - 29th June

some14some, how do you know they didn't bring it with them from Russia or catch it in the plane? The timing says that it is more likely they caught it outside Japan.
inakaRob at 09:10 AM JST - 29th June

F'n great. I live an hour away.
Statistician at 10:24 AM JST - 29th June

Has the world gone mad?

There are now esimated to have been around a million cases of this flu in the USA based on sample research.

And this is a news story?
timeon at 11:54 AM JST - 29th June

actually Japan is not even that paranoid. A friend of mine moved to Singapore yesterday, and he has to stay in quarantine at his home for one week
bamboohat at 12:11 PM JST - 29th June

It's glad to know that popular people haven't been close to those evil foreigners. Hows about a news story about all the fools going about their daily business, coughing on trains, etc.? And why does the U.S. estimate there are a million cases, while Japan publicly estimates that there aren't enough for tourists to worry about?
TokyoHustla at 12:56 PM JST - 29th June

"the new stain of influenza"

Which one? Swine flu? H1N1? Or something newer? A little bit of facts would help here.

Honestly, can someone start a real news site about Japan?
EUgirl at 04:18 PM JST - 29th June

some14some: Just thought the same.

There are not many cases of H1N1 in Russia yet, so it is quite unlikely they had it already in Russia. Plus top athletes get health checks before traveling to competitions. They could have got it at Narita airport - 4 airport employees got it.
EUgirl at 01:01 AM JST - 30th June

BTW: just saw in a European net newspaper - in Denmark they found a strain of H1N1 on one patient, that does not respond to Tamiflu.