Photo/Illutration Health minister Katsunobu Kato enters the prime minister’s office for a Cabinet meeting on Aug. 30. (Koichi Ueda)

The government plans to roll out new vaccines specifically designed to protect people from the Omicron variant with booster shots starting as early as September, sources said.

The inoculation campaign was initially scheduled to start in mid-October, but the government has moved up its timetable because it believes it can secure enough vaccines in time and prepare to start rolling them out through local governments, the government sources said.

Japan will start importing the new vaccines soon after a panel of experts tapped by the health ministry gives it the green light at a meeting in mid-September.

Once the shots are approved, experts will discuss eligibility for the vaccinations. The panel is expected to decide that the cost should be covered by public funds by categorizing them as temporary vaccinations under the immunization law.

The health ministry is asking local governments to prepare to provide the vaccines for anyone who has received their two shots of existing vaccines.

Health minister Katsunobu Kato was asked at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting on Aug. 30 whether those 18 years or older will be eligible for the vaccinations.

“We are making preparations with that in mind,” he replied.

The new shots are a “bivalent vaccine,” which means they are designed to defend against both the BA.1 Omicron subvariant, which was prevalent last winter, and the original novel coronavirus strain that the previous vaccines were designed to fight.

Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. have each applied for approval of their bivalent vaccines.

The new bivalent vaccines are being touted by their manufacturers for having a higher virus-neutralizing antibody titer--in other words, a stronger concentration of antibodies--to prevent infection from the Omicron strain than existing vaccines.

They are expected to be effective against the now-mainstream BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

The government plans to set the inoculation interval at around five months after a person’s second vaccination.

(This article was written by Kai Ichino and Yuki Edamatsu.)

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