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(Updates with official announcement on Okinawa)
By Chang-Ran Kim
TOKYO, May 21 (Reuters) - Japan expanded a state of
emergency to cover the southern island of Okinawa on Friday,
just as it approved two more coronavirus vaccines to speed up
its lagging inoculation campaign.
The newly approved vaccines, from Moderna Inc and
AstraZeneca PLC, will join the one co-developed by
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE in a vaccination
drive that began in mid-February.
But AstraZeneca's vaccine would not be used for the time
being, the company said. Earlier media reports said the
government would hold off on their use due to concerns over
blood clots and bleeding in some people.
"We are aware that our vaccine is not going to be used right
away," a spokeswoman at AstraZeneca said. Japan has arranged to
buy 120 million doses of the British-Swedish drugmaker's
vaccine.
Japan has so far vaccinated just 4.1% of its population,
according to Reuters' global tracker https://tmsnrt.rs/3vbj5CE,
the slowest rate among the world's larger, rich countries.
In contrast to some other Group of Seven (G7) countries that
are beginning to end pandemic-busting lockdown measures, much of
Japan remains under emergency curbs amid a fourth wave of
infections.
On Friday, the government added Okinawa to its list of nine
prefectures under the strictest emergency measures. They include
Tokyo, where the Olympic Games are due to start in about two
months.
JAPAN INC, PUBLIC FEARS OVER OLYMPICS
Fears that the Olympics would turn into a super-spreader
event have persisted, keeping the majority of the public opposed
to holding the Games this year. A Reuters corporate survey https://jp.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2020-japan-companies-poll/fretting-about-covid-most-japan-firms-say-olympics-should-be-cancelled-or-postponed-reuters-poll-idUSKCN2D12SZ
published on Friday showed nearly 70% of Japanese firms also
want the Games either cancelled or postponed.
The state of emergency for Okinawa would run for about a
month from Sunday through June 20, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
said, beyond the May 31 end of the other nine.
The move marks the third consecutive week that Japan has
expanded the state of emergency.
Japan has so far recorded about 695,000 novel coronavirus
infections and 12,000 COVID-19 deaths - much fewer than many
countries - but its medical system is increasingly strained by a
spike in more infectious variants of the virus.
With the Olympics starting on July 23, Tokyo is under
particular pressure to bring infections and strain on the
medical system down from the most dire "Stage Four" level and
emerge from a state of emergency as scheduled this month.
After a 30-minute meeting with Suga on Friday, Tokyo
Governor Yuriko Koike said she requested a sufficient supply of
vaccines for the capital as it begins mass-vaccinations next
week, and said the two shared their commitment to working
towards a "safe and secure" Olympics this summer.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Additional reporting by Rocky
Swift; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Christopher Cushing)
