Health

Japan begins administering omicron booster shots

Tokyo, Sep 20 (EFE).- Japan on Tuesday rolled out its vaccination campaign against the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Priority will be given to those aged 60 years and above as well as health workers who have not yet received a fourth dose.

The campaign is part of the country’s efforts to combat the seventh wave of Covid-19 infections.

From mid-October, the campaign will be extended to those over aged 12 and over who have received at least two doses of the vaccine.

The government plans to provide the vaccines free of charge to all those who request them by the end of the year, when more infections are likely to occur during New Year festivities, although local governments will be able to bring forward that timeline.

The booster doses have been developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna and target the omicron variant.

They were approved for production and sale in Japan by the health, labor and welfare ministry last week.

By Friday, over 102 million people, or 80.4 percent of the country’s population, had received at least two doses of approved Covid-19 vaccines and more than 82 million people, or 65.1 percent, had been administered three doses, according to the government’s data.

The number of people who had received four doses as of last week stood at about 32 million, most of them aged 65 years and over (28.5 million).

Japan has the highest number of new weekly Covid-19 cases, according to the World Health Organization.

This is attributed to the gradual abandonment of the count of official figures and the reduction of testing in other developed countries. EFE

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