The restaurant at the Japan Pavilion at the Dubai Expo has turned into a COVID-19 cluster with 10 employees detected positive for the disease.
According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 10 employees of the Japanese Sushi restaurant ‘Sushiro,’ attached to the Dubai Expo’s Japan Pavilion, were found to be infected with the new coronavirus.
A cluster of infected people was discovered in the facility that will be closed until safety is confirmed while the pavilion will continue to open as usual.
According to the ministry Sushiro opened its first restaurant in the Middle East to promote Japanese food culture at the Dubai Expo and the chef and customer service staff were also handled by Japanese, and “it became so popular that people had to wait for more than an hour every day to enter the restaurant.”
Following the outbreak, authorities however said that anyone who shows a negative PCR or vaccination certificate within 72 hours can enter the Expo where the total number of visitors reached 5.6 million as of Dec. 6.
The organizers canceled some of the events and increased PCR testing opportunities for employees working at the venue, and increased vigilance over the spread of the new Omicron strain.
The UAE Health Ministry said the number of new infections per day in the UAE has been less than 100 since the opening of the Expo in October, but it rose again after the first Omicron strain was confirmed on Dec. 1.
