TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday his government is accelerating Covid-19 booster shots and securing oral medicines after speaking with Pfizer Inc. CEO Albert Burla.
Japan has confirmed a handful of omicron variant cases, while revealing a cluster of infections of about 100 US troops on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa since earlier this month, AP reported.
Japan, which lacks home-developed vaccines, has so far approved booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna. Japan is also moving to shorten the interval between the second jab and boosters.
Kishida said the government will start giving booster shots to elderly people seven months after their second shot starting February. He also said he and Burla agreed on Pfizer’s supply of 2 million doses of oral medicine for Covid-19, in addition to Merck pills expected to be approved by the end of the month.
Japan on Dec. 1 started giving booster shots to medical workers using the Pfizer vaccine, with the elderly expected to be next in line. The Health Ministry on Thursday granted fast-track approval for the Moderna boosters. Japan already uses both, as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine, for the first two shots.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Japan signed deals with Pfizer and Moderna for a combined 170 million doses, which he said would be “enough to cover necessary doses.”
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