Japan's COVID-19 Vaccination Delayed... Requests Supply of 'Special Syringes' from Korean Companies
Vaccination for Elderly Starts April 12... Full-Scale Vaccination Expected to Be Later
Initially Scheduled for April 1, Now Delayed
An employee of the company is inspecting syringes at Punglim Pharmatech, a production facility for low dead space (LDS) syringes used for COVID-19 vaccinations. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Japan's COVID-19 vaccine supply is delayed more than expected, and the vaccination schedule is further postponed due to the failure to properly secure special syringes that minimize vaccine wastage.
According to local public broadcaster NHK on the 24th, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that COVID-19 vaccinations for the elderly are scheduled to begin on April 12. He explained to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office that vaccines for the elderly would be sent to each local government during the week including April 5, and vaccinations would start according to this schedule.
The elderly vaccination start announced by Prime Minister Suga is limited to a certain quantity and only for some elderly people, and full-scale elderly vaccinations will take place later. According to Kyodo News, Taro Kono, the Minister in charge of administrative reform who oversees vaccine vaccinations, announced that full-scale vaccinations for the elderly will begin in the week including April 26.
Originally, the Japanese government aimed to start elderly vaccinations after April 1, but the vaccination schedule was delayed as the vaccine supply timing was postponed.
The Japanese government failed to properly secure special syringes that can administer six doses per vial of Pfizer vaccine and reportedly requested about 80 million syringes from the Korean company Poonglim Pharmatech.
Prime Minister Suga announced that an expert advisory committee will be held on the 26th to decide whether to lift the COVID-19 state of emergency, currently in effect in 10 prefectures nationwide, early in some areas.
There is a possibility that the state of emergency will be lifted at the end of this month in six areas including Osaka Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture. However, the state of emergency is expected to be maintained until the originally scheduled date of May 7 in four metropolitan prefectures including Tokyo.
As of 7:40 PM on the day, Japan reported 921 new COVID-19 cases. Accordingly, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Japan rose to 429,088.
The number of deaths increased by 69, reaching 7,685.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
