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Japan to receive second shipment of Pfizer vaccine on Sunday
Taro Kono said at a news conference the shipment of up to 452,790 doses is set to arrive after the European Union gave approval under its new vaccine export controls.
Japan will receive its second shipment of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, the minister in charge of vaccination efforts said Friday, as the rollout gradually expands to hospitals across the country.
Taro Kono said at a news conference the shipment of up to 452,790 doses is set to arrive after the European Union gave approval under its new vaccine export controls.
Japan, which received its first shipment of up to 386,100 doses from Pfizer’s factory in Belgium last week, launched its vaccination program on Wednesday starting with an initial group of 40,000 healthcare workers.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said 611 people had been inoculated across 16 medical facilities as of 5 p.m. Thursday, with no reports of severe allergic reactions, also known as anaphylaxis, or deaths after shots were administered.
Hospitals in Hokkaido and Miyagi, Akita, Niigata and Osaka prefectures began vaccinations on Friday, with the rollout expected to expand to 100 hospitals by next week.
Asked by a reporter whether Japan has enough low dead space syringes to yield six doses from the two shipments, Kono said the country has sufficient stock but officials are still working out the logistics of distributing them to municipalities. Typical syringes widely available in the country can only extract five doses per vial.
The administrative and regulatory reform minister declined to say when he is expecting the third shipment to arrive.
Of the 40,000 healthcare workers, 20,000 are taking part in a study to track potential side effects caused by the vaccine, keeping daily records for seven weeks after receiving the first of two shots. The shots will be administered three weeks apart.
Kono said Thursday night on a TV program that the next group in line to be vaccinated from March — front-line health care workers across the country — had grown from the initial estimate of 3.7 million to 4.7 million.
People age 65 or older, a group of about 36 million, will begin inoculation starting April, followed by people with pre-existing conditions and those working at elderly care facilities, then finally the general population, according to the schedule set by the health ministry.
