Vaccination of health workers begins in Japan, with older people scheduled for April

The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. will be administered to 40,000 essential workers in 100 medical facilities on Wednesday, Taro Kono, the cabinet minister responsible for vaccines, said at a news conference Tuesday.

The same workers will receive their second dose from March 10.

Kono said it is possible that other medical providers – those who are not in the starting category – would receive their first dose by March 10 once the second dose for essential workers is secured.

Vaccination of older people will begin on April 1 at the earliest, starting after medical workers receive their injections, Kono said, adding that municipal governments have been encouraged to spend no more than two months and three weeks to complete this next phase of it. process. .

Vaccination of the rest of the population will officially begin thereafter, although ongoing vaccinations from one priority group may overlap with the next.

Individual vaccines from Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC are awaiting approval, Kono said, though their introduction could speed the process.

About 64,350 vials of the Pfizer vaccine arrived on a chartered flight from the European Union last week. Kono declined to specify when the second flight will arrive with extra vials, but said the central government will ensure that enough vaccines are secured to keep the process running smoothly.

The vaccination process in the United States has been hampered from the outset by significant delays and mistrust of government officials. Kono said Japan will certainly face its own problems in eradicating the virus, but the government is preparing to respond flexibly and quickly to such problems.

As for young people, who are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, Kono said it’s crucial they get the shot.

“It is very important that young people get the vaccine to prevent the virus from spreading,” he said.

With the opening ceremony of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo in late July, it remains a major concern whether the spread of the virus will have diminished sufficiently by then.