Kono: Japan To Get 2nd Vaccine Shipment On Sunday
Japan's Regulatory Reform Minister Kono Taro says the country will receive its second shipment of a coronavirus vaccine on Sunday. The vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech will arrive from the European Union.
The minister in charge of Japan's vaccination program also told reporters that up to 1.17 million doses will be distributed to prefectures for medical workers over the two weeks starting from March 1.
The government plans to inoculate about 4.7 million medical workers.
Kono said 1,000 cartons containing 195 vials each will be sent to prefectures this time. That's equivalent to 1.17 million shots if the maximum six doses are extracted from each vial.
The vaccine will be allocated according to the number of medical workers in each prefecture.
Kono said he hopes the vaccine arrives as scheduled and aims to deliver the number of doses as planned.
He added it may be a juggling operation.
Meanwhile, the government has made discretionary contract with a tech company in Tokyo to develop a system that allows the monitoring of the vaccination status of each individual. The deal is worth 385 million yen, or about 3.6 million dollars.
Kono said he wants to get the system ready early enough for people in charge at municipalities to try it before they start vaccinations.