Photo/Illutration Ota Mayor Masayoshi Shimizu, center left, together with Gunma Governor Ichita Yamamoto, center right, tour a baseball park where the Australian women's softball team will practice for the Tokyo Olympics in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, on June 1. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)

OTA, Gunma Prefecture--A city that is hosting the Australian women's softball team prior to the Tokyo Olympics will use vaccines secured for senior citizens to inoculate Japanese staff who are taking care of the athletes.

Officials here said the Cabinet Secretariat on June 1 accepted the city’s request to prioritize the vaccinations of city and hotel employees who are helping the Australian team.

The city government made the request on the evening of May 31, asking “Please allow us to vaccinate Japanese staff in order to host a safe Olympics.”

“It is not good that they hold practices fearing if they contract the virus from each other. But if the Japanese side are vaccinated, it will lead to safety and security,” Ota Mayor Masayoshi Shimizu said at a news conference on May 31.

But a city official did not deny uneasiness in the decision, citing that the city, in fact, received complaints and angry calls from about 100 residents after the early vaccination of 300 people last month.

“If we give the Olympics special treatment and let the (staff) jump the line, we will likely be swamped with complaints,” the official said. 

Asked by a reporter if such decision would provoke a backlash from residents, the mayor said, “I don’t think it is that much of a sin.”

“And we don’t have such a petty person in Ota,” he added.

Ota is hosting a pre-Olympic training camp for the Australian softball team, who arrived in the city on June 1.

The team is expected to stay until July 17, practice and play games against Japanese teams, before the Olympics open on July 23. 

All 33 members of the team have been vaccinated before departing from Australia. They will take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test every day during their 47-day stay in the city.

City and hotel employees who take care of the team will be required to take a daily PCR test, while Japanese players and umpires involved in practice games are expected to take a test by the day before a game.

But none on the Japanese side has received a vaccination.

Since the team stays in a "bubble" and is only allowed to move between the hotel and a baseball park where they practice, city employees take care of many daily chores for the team, such as shopping. They are also tasked to prepare the practice facility including groundkeeping duties and keeping close tabs from the stands.  

According to the city, 13 city employees and 40 or so hotel employees who come into close contact with the athletes are expected to receive two Pfizer shots, originally secured through the central government to vaccinate elderly residents of Ota.

Shimizu told reporters that such preferential treatment would not deprive senior citizens of being inoculated.

“Seniors in Ota have received a Moderna vaccine at a mass vaccination center set up by the prefectural government, too,” Shimizu said.

Therefore, the mayor said, “Inevitably, we will have vaccines to spare.”

But the reality may not be so rosy.

According to the city’s estimate, the city has secured enough Pfizer vaccines to inoculate about 54,200 people, 90 percent of the city’s elderly population, by the week starting June 21.

The city has received a postcard reply from more than 80 percent of the elderly population who said they want to be vaccinated.

The ratio of people who are willing to receive a vaccine was much higher than the city’s estimate, which was 70 percent.

A prefectural Tomo vaccination center was set up in the city on May 24. By May 30, 300 elderly residents went in first ahead of 60,000 others and received a shot.

It accounted for only 0.5 percent of the entire elderly population of the city.

More vaccines are scheduled to be delivered to the city in July, which are intended for residents younger than 65.

“If there is a shortage of vaccines, we can divert these vaccines,” said a city official who handles the vaccination project.

“But we could well be criticized by residents who wonder, ‘Why do we have to go to such lengths for the Olympics?’” the official added.

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