TOKYO (REUTERS) - Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla has agreed to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's request to supply additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the vaccine minister of Japan said on Sunday (April 18).
"They have agreed on the essentials of the matter," Japanese vaccination programme chief Taro Kono said during a live interview on Fuji TV, adding that further details including the shipment schedule will be discussed.
Mr Kono did not specify the number of extra doses sought from Pfizer, but said Japan would secure enough supply by the end of September to inoculate all people aged over 16. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only one approved in Japan.
Mr Suga made the request during a telephone call with Mr Bourla on Saturday, the last day of a three-day visit to Washington.
Japan is seeing a surge of new coronavirus cases in recent weeks, which top health experts say is a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inoculations of Japan's sizeable elderly population began on April 12, but some experts cautioned that the general population may not have access to vaccination until late summer or even winter because of constrained supplies.
Japan was among the last major economies to begin Covid-19 inoculations when it started in mid-February, after domestic trials to ensure safety.
Only 0.9 per cent of the Japanese public had received their first vaccine shot as of last Friday, compared with 2.5 per cent in South Korea, and 48 per cent in the United Kingdom.
Japan's top health experts have acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic has entered a fourth wave.
Japan has exhibited "poor performance" in containing virus transmission, along with limited testing capacity and a slow vaccination rollout, according to a commentary of health experts published in the British Medical Journal last Wednesday.
Tokyo's Olympics chief said last Friday that Japan was committed to holding a safe Games this summer, as a surge in Covid-19 cases prompted an expansion of contagion controls and with fresh calls for the Games to again be postponed or cancelled.
