THE JAPAN NEWS



 

The COVID-19 inoculation campaign underway at the government’s mass vaccination centers in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture went into full swing on Monday, as expanded eligibility criteria brought the sites up to their envisaged capacity of 15,000 doses per day.

At the Tokyo venue, people 65 or older who live in the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama became eligible to receive shots from Monday alongside residents of the capital.

On the same day, the Osaka venue expanded its eligibility criteria to include elderly from anywhere in Osaka Prefecture. Both centers are run by the Self-Defense Forces.

Following the change, the total number of people being vaccinated at the sites per day is expected to hit the 15,000 mark.

Early on Monday morning, a line had already begun to form at the government building that hosts the Tokyo venue in the Otemachi district of Chiyoda Ward, well before the check-in counter opened at 7:30 a.m.
“Since I interact with customers face-to-face at my job, I thought it would be better to get inoculated as soon as possible,” said a 69-year-old part-time worker from Tama Ward, Kawasaki. “Now that I can finally get the shot, I feel completely different.”

Set up by the Defense Ministry on May 24, the mass vaccination centers have been incrementally expanding the scope of their inoculation campaigns to accommodate more people in phases based on their area of residence.

The SDF vaccination program was initially scheduled to accept only eligible residents of Tokyo’s 23 wards and Osaka City from May 24-30. The plan was to then broaden the eligibility criteria to include eligible residents from throughout all of Tokyo and Osaka prefectures from May 31 to June 6.

However, in light of a surplus of unfilled reservation slots at the Tokyo venue, the decision was made to begin administering shots to residents of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures from Monday, a week ahead of schedule.

The venues are staffed by 280 SDF medical personnel and about 200 civilian nurses.

To prevent confusion on the first day, the SDF had previously capped the number of vaccine recipients to about 5,000 at the Tokyo site and about 2,500 at the Osaka site.

After gradually increasing the number of shots over the past week to acclimate medical staff with the procedures, the government made the decision to boost venue capacity to the envisaged 15,000-shot total from Monday.