The five prefectures with the highest COVID-19 inoculation coverage will be given priority in the distribution of vaccines for the elderly, administrative and regulatory reform minister Taro Kono said on Tuesday.
The five prefectures of Wakayama, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Saga and Kochi -- whose vaccination rates are all higher than those of the rest of Japan's 47 prefectures -- will be able to receive the amount of vaccines they request from the government when it distributes about 18.72 million doses in the two weeks from June 21.
The vaccine quotas for the remaining 42 prefectures will be decided based on the number of people eligible for vaccination.
"There is no point in building up inventories of vaccines, because they are precious," Kono, the minister in charge of Japan's coronavirus vaccination efforts, said at a press conference. He called on municipalities with accumulated inventories to provide their vaccines to other municipalities through their prefectural governments.
The central government determines the number of vaccinations based on data entered into the government's Vaccination Record System (VRS).
"From now on, we'll watch the figures recorded in the VRS more closely. I'd like to ask local governments that are behind in inputting data to speed up the process," Kono added.
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