The government will share data on each municipality's COVID-19 inoculation rate with prefectural authorities, in a bid to speed up the appropriate distribution of vaccines through improved coordination among prefectural governments.
Due to a shortage of novel coronavirus vaccine, a number of local governments have had to stop accepting reservations for shots. However, many other local authorities have sufficient stock.
The government monitors the vaccination situation of each municipality under the Vaccination Record System (VRS). Prefectural governments do not currently have access to VRS data, forcing them to ask their municipal governments about their inventory and other relevant information.
To speed up vaccine coordination among local authorities, the central government has decided to give prefectural governments access to the VRS so they can share data on the vaccination rates in each municipality.
Administrative and regulatory reform minister Taro Kono, who is in charge of the nation's vaccine distribution, has said the government will reduce the amount of vaccine to be distributed to local governments that have a certain amount in stock, while giving priority to local governments where inoculation rollouts are proceeding swiftly.
"As long as the [vaccine distribution] mismatches are sorted out, we can continue inoculations, so we want to deal with this matter properly," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura said Sunday on a TV program.
By the end of June, about 90 million doses of the vaccine made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. had been delivered. Of these, the central government estimates that about 50 million doses have already been administered and about 40 million doses are being kept in stock by local governments.
Regarding the vaccine made by U.S. biotechnology firm Moderna Inc., which is used for inoculations at both workplaces and local government venues, the government plans to secure 50 million doses by the end of September. However, as applications have sought more than 60 million doses, the government had to stop accepting applications.
It has decided to examine the applications and allocate Pfizer vaccine to some workplaces.
The government plans to release each prefecture's ratio of the number of vaccinations to the total amount of vaccines delivered.
According to data presented during Thursday's meeting of the House of Councillors committee on health, labor and welfare, Miyazaki Prefecture had the highest figure of 67.8% as of July 6, followed by Saga Prefecture with 65.8% and Gifu Prefecture with 65.4%. Osaka Prefecture had the lowest at 45.5%, followed by Tokyo's 45.8% and Hokkaido's 46.2%.
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