Japan Will Launch The Omicron Variant Booster Vaccination Starting Next Week, Free

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida illustration when receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. (Wikimedia Commons/)

JAKARTA - Japan will launch a vaccine against the Omicron coronavirus variant starting next week, free after a panel of the Ministry of Health approved their classification as a special interim inoculation on Wednesday.

Orang berusia 60 tahun ke atas dan pekerja medis, memenuhi syarat untuk mendapatkan suntikan yang disesuaikan dengan subvarian virus corona BA.1 mulai Selasa, kata kementerian itu, dilansir dari Kyodo News 15 September.

This step was taken as Japan stepped up additional vaccination efforts against the BA.5 subvariant which had triggered the seventh wave of COVID-19 infections.

From mid-October, the vaccine is expected to be available to all residents aged 12 and over, who have been vaccinated twice or earlier.

At the time, a total of 33 million doses of vaccine will be sent to the city government, with around 68.5 million people expected to be eligible for additional vaccinations between this month and October, the government said.

In addition, the Japanese Government plans to provide injections to all who want them by the end of 2022, towards the end of a highly contagious year and New Year period.

The government is also working to create a system that can manage more than 1 million vaccinations a day between October and November.

Boosters, made by US pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc., and Moderna Inc., have been adjusted to the BA.1 subvariant, approved for production and sale in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Manpower, and Welfare on Monday.

According to the ministry, boosters are expected to be more effective in suppressing serious COVID-19 symptoms, rather than previous vaccines adapted to the original type of coronavirus, and a strong possibility of future strains of the virus that may arise.

He added that the use of vaccines tailored to the subvariants of BA.4 and BA.5 is also being considered, the ministry said.