Japan is considering COVID-19 vaccination certificates as calls from abroad increase

Japan is considering issuing certificates to those vaccinated against the coronavirus, the minister responsible for vaccination efforts said Monday, as calls abroad grow for systems to help people travel safely again.

“If requested internationally, we can issue vaccination certificates,” Taro Kono said during a diet session. The addition of the certificates can be processed through government vaccine rollout management systems.

Kono’s final comment is a reversal of an earlier statement that Japan would not be in favor of issuing such documentation and comes as demand for such a system increases in the United States and Europe. Israel has already introduced a COVID-19 vaccine certification program.

Last month, Kono seemed to scrap the idea of ​​using COVID-19 vaccine certificates for official purposes, including as a vaccine passport that would allow international travel. He argued that this would exclude those who cannot be vaccinated due to allergies.

Regarding the introduction of domestic vaccines, the government plans to encourage companies to allow their employees to take paid time off to receive an injection and go to the hospital in the event of side effects, in light of the concerns raised by some people feel about making time to go to the hospital. vaccination sites, the top spokesman said.

“We will explore what steps we can take, including submitting requests related to the issue to the corporate sector and considering whether the government should allow national government employees to take paid time off work,” Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference.

Nippon Life Insurance Co. has decided not to pay wages if employees are given the vaccine during their working hours.

Japan began rolling out the vaccine last month, with health workers leading the queue.

Monday morning, the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines, developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., arrived. and its German partner BioNTech SE, at Narita Airport in Chiba prefecture.

The latest shipment from the medicine factory in Belgium can cover 216,000 doses, with a bottle containing six injections. The government plans to deliver them to the prefectural governments for the inoculation of the 4.8 million health workers prioritized in the vaccination program.

Japan is lagging behind other countries such as the United States and Great Britain in vaccine roll-out due to a shortage of supply due to production delays at Pfizer’s plant and European Union export controls.

But as the country is expected to receive more vaccines than initially planned from the week beginning next Monday, the central government expects to secure and send enough supplies for the two shots to cover health workers by the week of May 10.