Japan expands state of emergency, approves 2 more vaccines

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday expanded a coronavirus state of emergency hours after it approved the use of two more vaccines in an effort to contain a worrying surge in infections nine weeks ahead of the opening of the Tokyo Olympics.

Although there’s no forced lockdown, the state of emergency allows prefectural governors to demand that shops and public establishments close or shorten their hours. It has expanded from the hotspots of Osaka and Tokyo in late April to other regions earlier this month, currently covering 42% of Japan’s population.

On Friday, the government announced a decision to add Okinawa, a southern archipelago that hosts most of the U.S. military forces stationed in Japan, starting Sunday.

Earlier Friday, Japan approved the production and use of Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said the two vaccines will help speed up inoculations. Japan has administered one or more vaccine doses to roughly 5 million people, or just 4% of the population, using the Pfizer shots that were approved in February.

A quicker vaccine rollout is seen as key to Japan’s ability to contain a worsening spread of the coronavirus. More than half of Japan’s roughly 12,000 COVID-19 deaths have happened since February. The number of COVID-19 patients in serious condition hit a record high this week.

As the government pushes to host the Olympics in July, virus containment is essential to warding off mounting public worry about the safety of the event. Recent polls have found that more than 80% of Japanese oppose hosting the Summer Games.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to finish vaccinating the country’s roughly 36 million elderly population by the end of July, when the Games are to be held. However, a government survey of 1,741 municipalities released last week found around 15% will not be able to meet the deadline.

Following local vaccine rollouts at cities and towns across the country, the government on Monday will open mass-vaccination sites in two of the country’s biggest metropolitan areas, Tokyo and Osaka, with the goal of administering the shots to up to 15,000 elderly people a day. The sites will use the Moderna shots.

AstraZeneca’s vaccines will not be distributed to public vaccination sites anytime soon, the health ministry said upon approval. Because of reports of rare blood clots, the regulatory body will continue to examine the risks and usage guidelines.

Japan has secured around 364 million vaccine doses, including 50 million of the Moderna vaccine through a contract with Tokyo-based Takeda Pharmaceutical, 120 million from AstraZeneca, and 194 million from Pfizer. All three vaccines require two doses.

Kantaro Komiya, The Associated Press