(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s health minister said he’s hoping Pfizer Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine will be approved by mid-February under an accelerated process.
The comments from Norihisa Tamura came after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated this week that the government was preparing to start the inoculation program in late February, and added that local governments were readying vaccination centers.
“We need to do it as fast as possible,” Tamura said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg at his offices in Tokyo. “If all goes well, I would like to see the approval in about mid-February.”
Japan is set to begin the vaccination process about two months later than the U.S., following extra trials conducted on Japanese people. The vaccines will be provided free of charge, and medical personnel will get top priority, followed by the elderly. Suga, 72, has said he will be among the first to receive the vaccine.
The government has sealed a contract for 120 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, enough for 60 million of the country’s 126 million population, by the end of June. Pfizer is the only company so far to have applied for emergency approval for its vaccine, but Japan also has contracts with Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc.
A Bitter Vaccine History Means Hurdles for Japan’s Covid Fight
A poll carried out by the Yomiuri newspaper in December found that 84% of respondents wanted to be vaccinated, but only 15% wanted to receive their dose immediately. The remaining 69% said they were in no rush.
Japan has so far recorded just over 4,000 deaths from the coronavirus, compared with about 86,000 in the U.K., whose population is approximately half the size.
Últimas Noticias
Debanhi Escobar: they secured the motel where she was found lifeless in a cistern
Members of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office in Nuevo León secured the Nueva Castilla Motel as part of the investigations into the case
The oldest person in the world died at the age of 119
Kane Tanaka lived in Japan. She was born six months earlier than George Orwell, the same year that the Wright brothers first flew, and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize
Macabre find in CDMX: they left a body bagged and tied in a taxi
The body was left in the back seats of the car. It was covered with black bags and tied with industrial tape
The eagles of America will face Manchester City in a duel of legends. Here are the details
The top Mexican football champion will play a match with Pep Guardiola's squad in the Lone Star Cup
Why is it good to bring dogs out to know the world when they are puppies
A so-called protection against the spread of diseases threatens the integral development of dogs
