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Covid-19: generalized vaccination in Japan from May

2021-01-20T04:22:27.102Z


Generalized vaccination against the coronavirus is expected to start in May in Japan, and the government hopes that the majority of the country's adult population will have received a vaccine by the Tokyo-2020 Olympics in July, local newspapers reported Wednesday, January 20. Read also: How the tracing method is helping the Japanese curb the Covid-19 epidemic A regulatory green light in Japan fo


Generalized vaccination against the coronavirus is expected to start in May in Japan, and the government hopes that the majority of the country's adult population will have received a vaccine by the Tokyo-2020 Olympics in July, local newspapers reported Wednesday, January 20.

Read also: How the tracing method is helping the Japanese curb the Covid-19 epidemic

A regulatory green light in Japan for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is hoped for by the government for next month, in order to prioritize the vaccination of some 10,000 medical personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus.

Then about 50 million inhabitants at risk - people 65 years and over as well as those in fragile health - should be vaccinated by the end of April, according to government plans cited by the Yomiuri and Sankei dailies.

Vaccination of the rest of the population of the Archipelago, which has a total of some 126 million inhabitants, should start in May at the earliest, according to these two newspapers.

Japan last year ordered enough doses of vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna Therapeutics and AstraZeneca to cover its entire population.

According to the

Yomiuri

, the government hopes to immunize the majority of the country's adult population by the Tokyo Olympics.

But this goal promises to be ambitious, as the opening ceremony is scheduled for July 23.

And the old mistrust of the Japanese vis-à-vis vaccines may complicate the task: only 60% of them are ready to receive the injection, against 80% in China, 77% in the United Kingdom and 69% in the States United, according to an international Ipsos study carried out in December.

Read also: The keys to Asian success in the face of the coronavirus

The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics - postponed last year because of the pandemic - have prepared countermeasures supposed to allow them to be held this summer, even if the health crisis was not under control by then and vaccination still limited.

But in the current context, doubts are mounting on the real possibility of ensuring the event.

In Japan too, the pandemic is on the rise, which forced the government to declare this month a new state of emergency for eleven departments of the country, including that of Tokyo.

More than 80% of Japanese people are in favor of a further postponement or outright cancellation of Tokyo-2020, fearing the event will further aggravate the pandemic, according to a recent poll.

Government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said during his regular press briefing on Wednesday that it was too early to announce the vaccination schedule in the country.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-01-20

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