Japan passes fifty percent vaccination rate

Tokyo, Sep 12 (AP):
Japan’s government says more than 50 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
Japan’s vaccine rollouts began in mid-February, months behind many wealthy countries due to its lengthy clinical testing requirement and approval process. Inoculations for elderly patients, which started in April, were also slowed by supply shortages of imported vaccines, but the pace picked up in late May and has since achieved 1 million doses per day. Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of COVID-19 measures, told NHK public television’s weekly talk show Sunday that about 60 per cent of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, on par with current levels in Europe. The government is studying a roadmap for easing restrictions around November when a large majority of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated.
That would allow fully vaccinated people and those who test negative to travel, gather for parties or attend mass events. The progress of vaccinations has helped reduce serious cases and deaths among older people, but infections from virus variants spread explosively in August among younger generations still largely unvaccinated, severely straining health care systems.
Japan last Friday extended the ongoing state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 other areas until September 30. It had been scheduled to end Sunday. The measures focus on requests for eateries to close early and not serve alcohol. Japan has done much better than other developed countries in curbing illnesses and deaths without a lockdown. It has counted more than 1.65 million cases and 16,700 deaths. Meanwhile, New Zealand is buying an extra 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from Denmark as it tries to keep its coronavirus vaccination program running at full speed, the government said. The doses are on top of New Zealand’s regular shipments from Pfizer and come a few days after officials announced a similar deal with Spain for more than 250,000 extra doses. New Zealand was slow to get its vaccination program running but has seen demand spike since an outbreak of the delta variant in Auckland last month. That had left the country in danger of running out of doses ahead of a large scheduled shipment in October.