Japan began its long-awaited coronavirus vaccination program on Wednesday.
The first shots occurred at a hospital in Tokyo just hours after the hospital received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Up to 40,000 doctors and nurses across the country will receive the first doses of the vaccine, with the ultimate goal of reaching 3.7 million medical workers by March, followed by around 36 million citizens aged 65 and over.
Japan’s vaccination program is starting to slow, with health authorities formally approving the use of the two-dose drug Pfizer-BioNTech on Sunday. Officials called on Pfizer to conduct more tests on the vaccine in addition to earlier tests carried out in several other countries. Taro Kono, the country’s vaccination minister, told reporters Tuesday that the additional test was conducted to reassure the Japanese people about its safety.
Vaccinations are not mandatory in Japan, and while Kono expressed confidence that front-line workers and the elderly could be reached, he acknowledged that he needed to put together a plan to reach young people successfully. and encourage them to get the bullet.
Together with Pfizer-BioNTech, Japan has also signed contracts to receive millions of doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Moderna, enough for 157 million people. The country is hoping to get enough vaccines in time for the postponed Tokyo Summer Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in July.
Japan is the last member of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries to start the scenes.
Meanwhile, about 80,000 doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. drug dealer Johnson & Johnson arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, late Tuesday night. The government will begin rolling out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to health care workers later in the week as part of a speculative study. A total of 500,000 doses are expected to be sent to South Africa within a few weeks, along with another 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
South Africa had purchased 1 million doses of the bicolor vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, but rejected plans to use the drug after a study revealed the vaccine was less effective against variant of the coronavirus found in the country. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament on Wednesday that South Africa will share the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine with the African Union, which will distribute it across the continent.
The Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine has not been formally approved for use by any country, but the company says late-stage clinical trial results show it to be 85% effective in prevention of serious illness or death from COVID-19, even against the South African counterpart.
In the United States, President Joe Biden said Tuesday night that there will be more than 600 million doses of coronavirus vaccines in the country, enough to include “every American” by the end of July. Biden made the promise through a question and answer session in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that aired on CNN’s cable news network.
When asked by moderator Anderson Cooper when the United States will return to normal, Biden said before next Christmas “we will be in a very different situation, God willing, than we are today. The White House announced earlier Tuesday that the federal government will increase the number of COVID-19 vaccines that states receive each week from 11 million doses to 13.5 million doses.
The president also said states should prioritize public school teachers in their vaccination efforts as part of a strategy to reopen schools to full-time personal classes.