JAKARTA - Japanese Vaccine Minister Taro Kono said that his party will continue to strive to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination program targeted in May without a hitch.
This is in line with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's pledge to provide enough COVID-19 vaccines for Japan's 126 million population in June, before the start of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23.
"From May, there will be no bottlenecks in supplies," Kono, who was appointed in January to lead the vaccination effort in Japan, told Reuters in an interview.
Kono said he hopes to get 10 million doses of vaccine every week in May. However, according to him, the target was not influenced by the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan, which only started its COVID-19 vaccination program last month, relies on imports of Pfizer vaccine supplies. Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are in the process of getting approval from local authorities.
Kono said the AstraZeneca vaccine was in the process of waiting for approval, whose decision was issued by the Ministry of Health. According to him, having the AstraZeneca vaccine made in the country could save him from worrying about the transparency mechanism, which the European Union uses to limit exports of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"If we had someone producing vaccines in Japan, it would take away half of my headache," said Kono.
To note, as of Friday last week more than 780,000 people in Japan, mostly health workers, had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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