Japan officially approves Moderna, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines

TOKYO, May 21 — Japan’s health ministry on Friday formally approved two COVID-19 vaccines developed by U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc. and Britain’s AstraZeneca Plc. in a move that could speed up the country’s slow inoculation rollout.
The two new types of COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for people aged 18 or older, and similar to the Pfizer vaccine, will require two doses being administered several weeks apart.
The authorization comes after a Japanese government panel of experts on Thursday gave the green light to the two COVID-19 vaccines based on the panel’s assessment of Japan’s own clinical trials of the vaccines as well as those from overseas and the efficacy of the vaccines against COVID-19.
The Moderna vaccine is likely to be used at large-scale vaccination centers run by the Self-Defense Forces due to open in Tokyo and Osaka next Monday.
The U.S.-developed vaccine will also be administered at mass-vaccination centers being set up at local levels, the health ministry said.
The ministry added that the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, may not be rolled out immediately amid concerns over extremely rare instances of blood clots occurring in some other countries.
Japan’s vaccine rollout has come under fire for lagging far behind the pace of rollouts in other advanced countries. Since the launch of the country’s inoculation campaign began in February, only around four percent of its population of 126 million has received at least one dose.
Japan’s current fourth wave of infections has been spreading largely unabated, as the government has declared its third state of emergency over the virus in ten prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, with the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa being added on Friday just two months ahead of the planned start of the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose public support rate has dropped due to criticism over his response to the pandemic, has pledged to ramp up inoculations to one million shots a day and finish vaccinating the elderly by the end of July.
The government has secured 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna, the efficacy rate of which is 94 percent, by September and 120 million doses from AstraZeneca, the efficacy rate of which is somewhat lower at 70 percent.
The government’s deal with Pfizer, which has a 95 percent efficacy rate, involves 194 million doses. (Xinhua)