Millions of people in Japan will not receive Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine as planned due to a lack of specialized syringes – an oversight that can frustrate the country’s inoculation program.
The standard syringes in use in Japan are unable to extract the sixth and final dose of each vial manufactured by the American pharmaceutical company, according to Health Minister Norihisa Tamura.
Japan guaranteed 144 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine – enough for 72 million people – on the assumption that each bottle contained six doses.
Each container requires two jabs, three weeks apart, to increase the level of protection, according to Pfizer.
But a dearth of low “dead space” syringes – which have narrow plungers that can push any leftover vaccine – means that vaccinators in Japan will mostly have to use standard syringes that are capable of drawing only five doses per bottle, or enough for 60 million people.
“Syringes used in Japan can only take five doses,” said Tamura, according to the Kyodo news agency. “We will use all the syringes we have that can take six doses, but, of course, it will not be enough as more injections are administered.”
The government is asking medical device manufacturers to increase the production of specialized syringes.
Japan is not the only one to face the problem. The United States and European Union countries have also reported a shortage of syringes with little dead space, which means that there is likely to be strong competition to secure additional supplies quickly.
A Japanese health ministry official told Jiji Press: “When the contract was made, we were not sure that a bottle could be used for six doses. We cannot deny that it took us a long time to confirm this. “
When Japan starts its Covid immunization program in mid-February – several months after many other developed economies – health professionals who fail to extract the sixth dose will have to discard it, said government spokesman Katsunobu Kato .
The government defended its cautious approach to launching the vaccine, which is due to begin on February 17, pending local approval for the Pfizer vaccine two days earlier.
Japan will begin by inoculating 10,000 to 20,000 frontline health workers, whose conditions will be closely monitored for any side effects, followed by another 3.7 million health workers in mid-March.
Deployment for 36 million people aged 65 and over is not expected to begin until early April.
Just over 8 million people with pre-existing health problems and 7.5 million 60-64 years old will also have priority. The general population – people aged 16 to 59 – will not start receiving their jabs until around July, when Tokyo plans to host the postponed summer Olympics.
AstraZeneca requested approval for its vaccine last month, while the Moderna vaccine is not expected to receive regulatory approval until May.
In total, Japan has guaranteed enough doses for 157 million people.