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| Taro Kono said the government has hit its ceiling for how many doses of Moderna Inc.'s vaccine it can deliver to companies daily and most of the 50 million doses it expects to receive shipments of by September have already been allocated. ( File photo by=AP) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] Japan’s government announced Wednesday it’s temporarily postponing company applications for COVID-19 vaccinations at workplaces due to concerns it will be unable to distribute doses quickly enough, Kyodo reported.
During a press conference, Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the inoculation effort said tha applications will be closed off to companies after 5 p.m. Friday, with no timeline set for when they will resume. Kono added that the government has hit its ceiling for how many doses of Moderna Inc.'s vaccine it can deliver to companies daily and most of the 50 million doses it expects to receive shipments of by September have already been allocated. Applications for large-scale vaccination sites set up by prefectures, which also use the Moderna vaccine, will stop immediately, he said.
The move, which comes as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is seeking to finish inoculating everyone eligible among Japan's population of 125 million by November, does not affect hospitals and clinics administering Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine. Meanwhile, vaccinations started on Monday at major companies including Central Japan Railway Co. and SoftBank Group Corp. as well as on university campuses, ramping up a rollout that until then had largely been limited to health care workers and people aged 65 or older.
