TOKYO (JAPAN) – Japan will only get access to limited doses of COVID-19 vaccines during the initial months of the rollout and shots for the elderly will be distributed gradually, said the country’s inoculation chief.
Pfizer Inc, the only approved COVID-19 vaccine by Japan, is strengthening up production in Europe. However, Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono cautioned that those increased supplies are not likely to be accessible for Japan until May, in an interview with national broadcaster NHK.
Kono said, “We would like to start vaccinations for the elderly in April, but unfortunately the number of doses allocated to them will be very limited at first, so we want to start slowly.”
Though Japan has been part of negotiations to receive more than 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Western drugmakers, domestic regulators have only given approval to one vaccine so far.
Japan’s chief government spokesman said on Monday that the vaccine’s regulatory approval was on the basis of a two-dose regime.
“I think we need to carefully consider whether we can immediately conclude from this study that one dose is enough or not,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
After Kono was tapped last month to lead Japan’s vaccination push, he has kept himself away from giving firm timelines regarding when doses will arrive and will be distributed. Even so, the government has continued to stick with pledge to seal enough shots for the whole population of 126 million by June.
Japan has been in talks to receive 144 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine this year, and about 450,000 shots have been sent, in its second shipment, which arrived on Sunday.
The government’s priority has been vaccinations for around 4.7 million medical workers, about 1 million more than initially estimated.