Japan Is Threatened With Shortage Of The COVID-19 Vaccines Supply Until May 2021 For Their Vaccination Program

Ilustrasi Vaksin PfizerBioNTech. (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Secretary of Defense )

JAKARTA - The Japanese Health Authority last week launched a COVID-19 vaccination program for health workers in Tokyo. However, Japan is said to only accept a limited number of vaccine doses for the initial stage, so vaccination will be carried out gradually.

This was expressed by Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono, regarding Pfizer as the only producer of the COVID-19 vaccine approved by Japan. Although Pfizer is increasing production in Europe, vaccine supplies will likely not reach Japan until May, he said in an interview with NHK.

"We want to start vaccination for the elderly in April, but unfortunately the number of doses allocated to them will initially be very limited, so we want to start slowly", Kono said.

Japan has negotiated to receive more than 500 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Western drug manufacturers. However, domestic regulators have so far approved only one vaccine, and the country remains dependent on imported supplies hampered by production constraints and export controls.

As Japan and other countries consider how to expand the supply of scarce vaccines, a recent Israeli study showed that one injection of Pfizer formula can protect against the virus, rather than two standard doses.

The chief spokesman for the Japanese government said that regulatory approval for vaccines is based on two doses.

"I think we need to consider carefully whether we can immediately conclude from this study that one dose is sufficient or not", Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.

Since Kono was chosen last month to lead the acceleration of the vaccination program in Japan, he has refused to provide a definite timetable for when the doses will arrive and be distributed. Even so, the government sticks to their promise to secure sufficient doses for the entire population of 126 million by June.

Japan has negotiated to receive 144 million doses of Pfizer vaccine this year, and the second shipment of about 450.000 injections arrived on Sunday.

As previously reported, Japan started a vaccination program last week with doctors and nurses getting their first injection. The government is prioritizing vaccination for about 4.7 million medical workers, about 1 million more than originally estimated.