Japan doubles vaccination doses to 40,000 for Olympic workers – Tamayo Marukawa

Japan is doubling its coronavirus vaccination doses to 40,000 for people working at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, having secured another 20,000 jabs.

Olympic Minister, Tamayo Marukawa, said on Tuesday that the government has reached an agreement with U.S. company, Pfizer.

The deal comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had agreed with Pfizer over a similar amount of jabs.

The vaccination programme for people working at the Games from July 23 to Aug. 8 is to start on Thursday.

The latest agreement allows offering vaccination to volunteers in the athletes’ village, members of the organising committee and Japanese media representatives.

The IOC says it expects some 80 per cent of the 10,900 athletes to be vaccinated when they arrive in Japan.

Vaccination of the Japanese public has had a slow start compared to other nations.

A majority of Japanese oppose the Games being staged soon, after they were postponed in 2020 owing to the pandemic.

Japanese organisers and the IOC had pledged to stage safe Games, with the final edition of the playbooks for all stakeholders at the Games to be released later on Tuesday.

Tokyo remains under a state of emergency until at least Sunday, and the government is reportedly considering placing Tokyo under a quasi state of emergency during the Games.