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(ANSA) – TOKYO, JANUARY 03 – The Japanese government accelerates the preparatory phase for the start of vaccinations against the coronavirus, which will not be available before the end of February. The executive will give priority to standardizing the evaluation process for the approval of currently available vaccines. The next plan will refer to the beginning of the administration of the anti-Covid vaccine as a remedy to contain the virus, ensuring the stability of the economic cycle in the country.
In detail, Tokyo has signed preventive contracts for the supply of 290 million doses, more than double the population, with three pharmaceutical companies. The first of them, US-based Pfizer, applied for approval of the vaccine in Japan in December, but a response from the Japanese Ministry of Health will not arrive before February. According to the regulations of the health authorities, the first administrations of vaccines will be directed to medical workers at the end of next month, to the elderly in March and, subsequently, to those suffering from chronic diseases.
So far, the virulence of the pandemic in Japan – in particular the incidence of deaths – has been lower than that observed in European countries and the United States, considering the high percentage of older people in the population. In recent weeks, however, there has been an uptick in infections and the Tokyo metropolitan government, along with three other prefectures, has asked the executive to order the entry into force of the state of emergency, imposing new restrictions on mobility. To date, nationally, the number of infections in Japan is 242,056, with 3,572 confirmed deaths. (HANDLE).
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