TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan launches its COVID-19 vaccine program on Wednesday amid concerns that a shortage of special syringes could waste millions of doses of Pfizer vaccine while the country engages with the third and worst rate of disease. .
Japan vaccine head Taro Kono announced the launch of the program at a press conference Tuesday after the government officially approved Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, the first such license in Japan.
But there is growing fear in Japan that millions of doses of Pfizer vaccine could be consumed due to a shortage of special syringes that increase the number of images used from each vial.
The government has made urgent calls, but manufacturers are struggling to ramp up production fast enough, creating the latest headache for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is suffering from weak public support.
“We are still trying to secure these special filters,” Cabinet Secretary-General Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday.
Japan’s vaccine campaign, the last to be launched among G7 industrial nations, will begin with 40,000 medical workers.
The government will then target people aged 65 and over, those with pre-existing health conditions, and staff at care facilities for the elderly. The vaccination campaign would be completed within a year, Kono said.
“Now that we begin our inoculation campaign – a vital card to play in our fight against coronavirus pandemic – I hope that many people will be vaccinated while they properly understand the benefits and risks, ”he said.
Swiftly circulating the Japanese population is a top priority for the Suga government as it is determined to hold the Tokyo Olympics in the summer after the Games were postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan, with a population of 126 million, has so far signed contracts to receive 314 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc, enough for 157 million people.
SYRINGE SHORTAGE
Japan last month signed a contract with Pfizer Inc to get 144 million doses of its vaccine, or enough for 72 million people.
One vial is meant for six beats, Pfizer says, but it takes special syringes that hold a low dose of solution after injection to deliver six doses, while only taking one dose. five strokes with conventional syringes that the government has stored in preparation for the inoculation drive.
When asked last week, Kato did not answer questions directly on whether the lack of a suitable syringe meant the number of photos Japan could provide would be reduced, but Tuesday he admitted that there would be rubbish without it.
“When it comes to what’s left in filters and filters, what’s unused is disposed of,” Kato said.
Both a Japanese Pfizer spokesman and a Japanese health ministry official declined to say whether the deal to deliver 144 million doses of vaccine to Japan by the end of the year is based on taking six doses from each vial.
“I want to do what I can to make sure we get six doses, considering that so many people around the world are waiting to be vaccinated, and Japan cannot be the only country who is smoking her vaccines, ”Kono said.
In an effort to reduce the amount of unused vaccines in filters and filters, the government is urging medical equipment manufacturers to increase the yield of low-dead place filters, but there are doubts. you can do that fast enough.
While daily affairs have been declining in recent weeks in Japan after their arrival in early January, Tokyo and nine other prefectures are still under a coronavirus crisis.
Reciting with Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional recitation by Ritsuko Ando and Sakura Murakami; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore and Ana Nicolaci da Costa