TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan launched its COVID-19 inoculation campaign on Wednesday, administering the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine to Tokyo hospital staff, while Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga tries to overcome adversity and host the Olympics this summer .
Tokyo Medical Center workers were among the first of about 40,000 medical professionals who would receive initial vaccine shipments. They will be followed by a further 3.7 million medical personnel, then 36 million people aged 65 and over.
“This is the first major step towards ending the coronavirus (pandemic),” Deputy Health Minister Hiroshi Yamamoto told reporters at the hospital after the first vaccines were administered.
Suga said that the vaccine implantation will be critical for a successful Olympics, delayed compared to last year and scheduled to start in late July.
The government plans to guarantee enough vaccines for its entire population of 126 million by mid-2021. A full roll out could take a year, said vaccination program chief Taro Kono on Tuesday.
There are also fears that millions of doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine may be missed due to the lack of syringes needed to maximize the number of injections for each vial.
Tokyo Medical Center said it has sufficient supply for now of the low dead space syringes needed to extract six doses from each vial. She plans to inoculate 60 people a day starting on Thursday to minimize the amount of vaccine that can go to waste and monitor people who receive a dose.
The hospital’s director, Kazuhiro Araki, said he wanted to set an example for others by getting the first injection.
“I don’t really like receiving photos,” Araki told reporters. “I’m glad it didn’t hurt. I feel relieved. “
Japan has signed contracts to purchase a combined total of 314 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BionTech, AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc – enough for 157 million people.
Japan has reported about 415,000 cases of COVID-19 so far, including 7,013 deaths.
Although daily cases have declined in the last few weeks after the peak in early January, Tokyo and nine other prefectures remain in a state of emergency to prevent further spread of the disease.
Japan is the last member of the Group of Seven industrialized countries to launch a vaccination campaign. The government plans to vaccinate health workers first, then the elderly, those with health problems and workers in elderly care institutions.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jane Wardell