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Japan does not expect to start Covid-19 vaccination until the end of February, said Yoshihide Suga, warning that a state of emergency could soon be declared in Tokyo.
At his New Year’s press conference, the Japanese prime minister said the government needed to send a “stronger message” in the capital, where people continued to dine during the New Year holidays.
Suga’s comments highlight Japan’s struggle to control the latest wave of coronavirus, with cases reaching record levels of 3,000 to 4,000 per day across the country, of which about 1,000 are in Tokyo.
Rising infections in the capital and the slow progress of vaccines could pose a new threat to the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to start in just 200 days.
“Experts say that many of the untraceable Covid cases are due to eating out, so our most effective response is to ask people to refrain from meeting at night and ask restaurants to shorten their hours. opening, ”Suga said.
Measures to curb the outbreak have been effective in Hokkaido and Osaka, Suga said, but less so in Tokyo. Hospital systems in some parts of the country are struggling with the volume of severe cases or outbreaks among medical personnel.
The government will likely ask residents in the Tokyo area to avoid going out after 8pm and for restaurants to close at that time. However, unlike the state of emergency last spring, schools are expected to remain open.
Freedom of movement
Japan has a constitutional right to freedom of movement, so the government cannot declare a mandatory shutdown, but the public largely complied with official requests last year. A new law will allow the government to sanction companies that do not close under its direction.
After delaying as long as possible, Suga suspended the Japanese “Go To” campaign of subsidies for domestic travel during the New Year holidays. At his press conference, he said it would be difficult to restart the campaign if the government had to declare a state of emergency.
The prime minister said that US pharmaceutical companies intended to submit clinical trial data for Covid-19 vaccines to Japanese regulators in mid-February. But following a request from the government, that date was brought forward to the end of January.
“Based on a review of their safety and efficacy, we expect to begin administering the approved vaccines by the end of February,” said Mr. Suga.
Medical personnel would receive the vaccine first, followed by the elderly. Mr. Suga said that he would also receive a vaccine.
Japan has had a sometimes difficult relationship with vaccines, and the government is nervous about public acceptance. The human papillomavirus vaccine is rarely given in the country after a health problem broke out nearly a decade ago.
Tokyo agreed to purchase several of the major Covid-19 vaccines, including injections from BioNTech / Pfizer, Oxford / AstraZeneca, and Moderna. It plans to offer the vaccine for free to its entire population. – Copyright by The Financial Times Limited 2021
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