Photo/Illutration Tokyo metropolitan government employees monitor people who received a COVID19 vaccine shot at a mass vaccination center on July 1. (Pool)

The Tokyo metropolitan government is delaying the second shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to support staff for the Olympic Games to ensure side-effects from the doses won’t cause them to miss any work.

The second doses will be administered following the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics, more than six weeks after the first shots were administered.

Metropolitan officials said the arrangement is intended “to avoid possible disruptions in their (support staff) duties during the Games by trying to receive their second shots or experiencing fevers and other side-effects from getting vaccinated.”

Two doses are required to produce the full effects of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

Some metropolitan employees working as support staff were outraged by the decision.

“I was stunned to find that the metropolitan government is putting the Olympics ahead of inoculations,” one of the employees said. “I am angry that we are instructed to work as support staff during the Games with only a single dose.”

The duties of the support staff include guiding visitors to competition venues and working at those places.

The metropolitan government sent an “administrative circular” dated June 22 to support staff to ask if they were hoping to get vaccinated.

It instructed managers of each division to compile a list of support staff who wanted inoculations at a mass vaccination center operated by the metropolitan government.

About 1,000 metropolitan employees received their first doses of the Moderna vaccine between June 28 and June 30.

Moderna Inc. recommends administering the second shot four weeks after the first one.

However, the metropolitan government’s circular said: “The second shot will be administered after the Summer Games are over as four weeks from the first shot coincides with the event period.”

It went on to say that employees who received their first dose on June 28 can get their second one on Aug. 10, more than six weeks later.

“Only those who will accept this condition should sign up for the vaccinations,” the document said.

It provided a link to the health ministry’s website that explains the recommended interval between the first and second doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The website stated that the second doses of both vaccines can be given even after the recommended intervals: three weeks for Pfizer and four weeks for Moderna.

The website added: “The WHO, the United States and some EU nations issued guidance that second shots should be administered by six weeks after the first ones if the second doses are not available four weeks later.”

The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee arranged for volunteers at the Olympic Games to receive their first doses if they wanted to be vaccinated. They can get their second shots even during the event.

The metropolitan government’s bureau preparing for the Olympic and Paralympic Games justified its decision to provide a second dose after the Olympics.

“In reply to our inquiry, the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health did not reject the suggestion of administering second shots six weeks later,” an official with the preparation bureau told The Asahi Shimbun. “Some employees will be able to get their second doses five weeks later because the Games will now be held with no spectators.”

(This article was written by Nobuya Sawa and Rihito Karube.)

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