Japan residents to get free coronavirus vaccine

TOKYO: Japan will give free coronavirus vaccines to all of its residents under a bill passed on Wednesday, as the nation batles record numbers of daily cases.

The bill, which says the government will cover all vaccine costs for Japan’s 126 million residents, was approved by the upper house of parliament, having cleared the powerful lower house.

The country has secured COVID-19 vaccines for 60 million people from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and for a further 25 million people from biotech firm Moderna.

It has also confirmed it will receive 120 million doses of Astrazeneca’s vaccine.

Pfizer and Moderna are already seeking emergency-use approval in the United States and Europe, ater clinical tests showed their jabs were effective.

The bill’s passage comes two weeks ater Japan’s prime minister said the country was on “maximum alert” over the virus, and as medics warn hospitals are on the brink of collapse.

Japan has seen a comparatively small COVID-19 outbreak overall, with around 2,100 deaths and 150,000 cases, and has not imposed the strict lockdowns seen elsewhere.

But it is now facing a third wave of the disease, reporting record numbers of daily infections nationwide in recent weeks.

Tokyo’s governor has urged residents to avoid non-essential outings and asked businesses serving alcohol to shut early, although there is no enforcement mechanism for these recommendations.

In a separate development, Philippine’s Health Secretary Francisco Duque on Wednesday opposed the plan allowing minors to leave their homes and visit shopping malls, warning this could lead to a spike in the number of infections especially during the holiday season from the coronavirus pandemic.

Duque pointed out that about three to five per cent of the total COVID 19 cases in the country are children and, as such, he warned: “They are not exempted from infections. As much as possible, we are discouraging that because there still that risk.”

Duque was reacting to the statement of Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano that minors may soon be allowed to leave their homes and visit shopping malls as long as they are accompanied by their parents or guardians.

But Ano, a retired military general, said local government units have yet to pass resolutions or ordinances providing for the age brackets in minors allowed to visit the malls since lockdowns were imposed to prevent the spread of the virus.

On the other hand, Duque noted that although they may not show symptoms (or asymptomatic), children could still become a major contributory factor in the spread of the pandemic.