By JUNYA SAKAMOTO/ Staff Writer
June 24, 2021 at 15:20 JST
A staff member at Universal Studios Japan receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot in Osaka on June 21. (Yuki Shibata)
Just five days into the rollout of its much-hyped mass vaccination campaign at workplaces and universities, the central government will suspend program applications because its supply of Moderna vaccines cannot keep up with demand.
Taro Kono, state minister in charge of Japan’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, said at a news conference on June 23 that the government will suspend new applications from companies and universities as of 5 p.m. on June 25 amid a deluge of applications.
The government already stopped taking new requests for Moderna vaccines from local governments for their mass vaccination sites on June 23, Kono also disclosed.
He said vaccines will still be delivered for applications that have already been filed and approved. But he did not say when the government will resume accepting new applications.
“We have no choice but to run the operation for a while like (we are) closing our eyes and walking a tightrope,” Kono said.
“To maintain the current capacity of inoculating as many people as possible, delivering the proper (amount of) vaccines is the most important thing,” he added, pledging that the government will do its best to make that happen.
However, a Cabinet member said it will take two to three weeks to scan the remaining applications that have already been filed, which means it is unlikely the government will resume accepting new applications anytime soon.
The prime minister’s office started taking applications for the vaccination program at workplaces and universities on its website on June 8. The workplace-inoculation effort started on June 21.
The government has said 50 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, enough to inoculate 25 million people, will be supplied by the end of September.
Kono said the government has already received applications for about 45 million doses, with 33 million requests from workplaces and universities and 12 million from local governments.
That maxed out the government’s capacity for daily vaccine deliveries, Kono said.
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