The government will prioritize the allocation of COVID-19 vaccine developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC to six prefectures currently under a state of emergency, Taro Kono, the minister in charge of Japan's vaccine rollout, announced during a press conference on Tuesday.
Japan has secured enough of the AstraZeneca vaccine for 2 million doses and plans to start distributing it as early as mid-August to Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka and Okinawa prefectures.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been used in Japan so far, due to reports of rare cases of blood clots developing after it was administered overseas. However, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry decided in late July to add the AstraZeneca product to the list of vaccines used for inoculations of people aged 40 or over at public expense.
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