Japan launches vaccine drive months ahead of Olympics

Japan on Wednesday began its COVID-19 vaccination drive just months ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games this summer, according to multiple reports.

About 40,000 medical professionals are expected to receive initial doses, followed by 3.7 million more medical personnel, and then people aged 65 and older, according to Reuters. 

The government wants to secure enough vaccine doses for its population of 126 million by mid-2021. Japan’s vaccination program chief, Taro Kono, said on Tuesday that a complete rollout could take a year, according to the news service.

Thus far, Japan has signed contracts to purchase 314 million vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna, which is enough for 157 million people, Reuters notes.

Japan’s rollout lagged behind other countries since it asked Pfizer to conduct clinical trials with Japanese people, along with tests conducted in other nations, in a bid to address low vaccine confidence in the country, The Associated Press reported. 

Officials will still have to deal with wariness surrounding the delayed Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in July. The AP noted that 80 percent of those polled in media survey support canceling or further postponing the games.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is still moving forward with the games, saying they are “proof of human victory against the pandemic,” according to the AP. 

Japan has recorded 418,435 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, as well as 7,139 deaths.