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Japan opened two mass vaccination centres on Monday as the country races to vaccinate most of its elderly population against Covid-19 before the start of the Tokyo Olympics. The centres in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people every day, giving a boost to Japan’s slow vaccination drive as they battle the fourth wave of coronavirus.
The Tokyo facility will operate 12 hours a day to distribute vaccine shots to around 10,000 people daily for the next three months. The site in Osaka will make about 5,000 shots a day. Mass vaccination facilities are also planned for Nagoya, Kobe, and other major cities. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga charged the Defense Ministry last month with setting up the centres to boost up the country’s vaccination programme.
Just 4.4% of Japan’s population of 125 million have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Reuters’ global tracker, the slowest rate among the world’s larger, rich countries. Japan began its vaccination push in mid-February, later than most major economies. The campaign was slowed initially by initial supplies of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE vaccines. But even as shipments increased the rollout has been delayed by manpower shortages, logistical hurdles, and malfunctions in the reservation system. The mass vaccination centres for the elderly will use Moderna Inc‘s vaccine, which was approved on Friday.
