Photo/Illutration Senior Vice Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, center, and Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura check out the Osaka International Convention Center in Osaka on May 3. (Yoshiaki Arai)

The cavernous Osaka International Convention Center will serve as a venue for mass vaccinations late this month as Osaka Prefecture struggles to contain a steep surge in COVID-19 cases, the government said May 3.

The building in Osaka’s Kita Ward is so vast it is dubbed Grand Cube Osaka.

Elderly residents from Osaka Prefecture will get priority during the three-month program being overseen by the Self-Defense Forces.

It is scheduled to open as a vaccination center as early as May 24. 

Vaccinations will be administrated daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the Defense Ministry said.

However, the number of people to be inoculated each day remains undecided.

The ministry is considering allowing residents from nearby Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures to get jabs there as well.

Yasuhide Nakayama, the senior vice defense minister, visited two candidate sites at the Osaka International Convention Center and Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in the city's Naniwa Ward on May 3 to assess the safety of routes to control the flow of anticipated heavy human traffic, as well facilities being set up to serve as a first-aid room.

The government is also planning to open a massive vaccination center in Tokyo’s Otemachi district. Elderly people from Tokyo and its three neighboring prefectures will receive priority assistance.

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