Japan may approve the second COVID-19 vaccine in May, said the health minister

The country’s health minister said on Sunday that his ministry could approve a second COVID-19 vaccine as early as May, as the government sees vaccinations as crucial to containing infections.

“There is the possibility of giving pharmaceutical approval as early as May or June,” said Norihisa Tamura, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, during a TV program.

Tamura also said that the government would be ready to consider a request from Johnson & Johnson for its single-dose vaccine, should it be submitted. But he has not yet decided whether to buy the vaccine as discussions continue, he said.

The vaccine of the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. was the first to be approved for use in Japan in February. British AstraZeneca PLC applied for a coronavirus vaccine in early February and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. also applied for approval for the vaccine from the American biotechnology company Modern Inc. last Friday.

Takeda, which is handling domestic approval and imports of about 50 million doses of Moderna, announced the order. He had previously said that approval could be given in May.

Japan started inoculation in mid-February, using the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. But doses of Pfizer, imported from European factories, are in short supply.

Japan has signed agreements with the three vaccine manufacturers for a total of 314 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, enough to inoculate 157 million people. The country’s population is about 126 million.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has repeatedly said that vaccines are a crucial step in controlling the pandemic as soon as possible.

Tamura also said that the government plans to increase medical capacity as soon as the state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring municipalities is lifted. The emergency declaration covering the capital and prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama was extended on Friday for two weeks.

“We don’t want to see another resurgence of the virus, but we need to think about the worst case scenario,” said Tamura, adding that the government intends to strengthen the health system so that it is able to deal with a resurgence that is up to twice the scale of the current wave. .