Japan confirmed its first deaths among people infected with the omicron coronavirus variant Saturday.

The Shizuoka Municipal Government said that a man who died on Tuesday at a medical institution was confirmed to have been infected with the omicron variant based on genomic testing. He was elderly and had severe pre-existing conditions.

The Chiba Prefectural Government said that an elderly woman who also died Tuesday had been infected with the highly contagious variant as well. She had a pre-existing disease that affected her circulatory system.

The woman was a close contact with a family member infected with the coronavirus and she was hospitalized from early January after displaying COVID-19 symptoms, including a fever. She had received two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine.