Interview: Japan vaccine czar Kono says inoculation pace to accelerate in May

JCR Pharmaceuticals

29/03/2021 04:46

By Rocky Swift and Elaine Lies
    TOKYO, March 29 (Reuters) - Japan's vaccine minister, Taro
Kono, said on Monday that the pace of inoculation in the country
would accelerate in May, with 10 million doses expected to be
imported every week that month.
    "Starting in May, there will be no bottleneck in supply,"
Kono told Reuters in an interview. Officially the minister in
charge of administrative reform, Kono was tapped in January to
lead Japan's COVID-19 vaccination push.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2L60AS
    Japan started its vaccination campaign last month, later
than most major economies and dependent on imported doses of
Pfizer Inc's  PFE.N  vaccine. Shots developed by AstraZeneca PLC
 AZN.L  and Moderna Inc  MRNA.O  are now awaiting regulatory
approval in Japan.
    Through Friday, just over 780,000 people in Japan, mostly
healthcare workers, have received at least one vaccine dose.

 (Reporting by Rocky Swift and Elaine Lies
Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
 ((rocky.swift@thomsonreuters.com))