Plant quarantine officials in Japan have had a number of inquiries about unsolicited packages of seeds apparently sent from China. They are calling on people not to plant them.
On Tuesday, a man in Miura City in Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo received a silver packet containing a bag of dozens of seed-like objects, each measuring about 2 millimeters. The shipping label suggests it came from China.
Japanese municipalities and health officials confirmed 110 new cases of coronavirus infection across Japan on Monday, bringing the total to 18,631.
With the 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined at Yokohama port added, the total number of confirmed infections comes to 19,343.
Tokyo officials say 58 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday. The number of infections has been on the rise in recent days, but the government says there's no need to declare another state of emergency.
The latest figure is slightly smaller than Sunday when the daily tally was the highest since the nationwide state of emergency was fully lifted last month.