<Anchor>
Japan started vaccinating coronavirus from today (17th).
First of all, starting with medical workers, we plan to gradually expand the target population while looking for side effects.
This is Tokyo's correspondent Yoo Seong-jae.
<Reporter> The
Japanese government started vaccinating against coronavirus today.
40,000 medical workers, including doctors, nurses, and administrators at national medical institutions who have applied for prior vaccination, will be vaccinated, and they will receive the Pfizer vaccine urgently approved by Japan on the 14th, twice every three weeks.
However, vaccinations have not yet arrived in local areas, so today, vaccinations were conducted only in metropolitan areas such as Tokyo.
[Arai/Doctor (Japanese No. 1 vaccination): I hope that many people will be able to stop infection and receive medical services with peace of mind.] The
Japanese government checks the health status of 20,000 people, half of those eligible for prior vaccination, daily for a month We plan to determine if there are any side effects.
The vaccination of 3.7 million medical workers will begin in the middle of the following month when the second vaccination for the preceding vaccination is completed.
Subsequently, from April, 36 million elderly people, followed by the underlying disease and nursing facility workers, will receive the vaccine sequentially.
Japan has signed a vaccine for 152 million people so far, far exceeding the total population.
However, there are also concerns that the EU's strengthening export controls could disrupt the vaccine procurement at Pfizer's plant in Belgium.
In addition, tasks that need to be addressed in a hurry are emerging, such as difficulties in securing the personnel to be used for vaccination and vaccination sites to avoid crowding depending on the region.