Moderna shots suspended in Japan’s Okinawa after contamination reports

Japan’s Okinawa region has
decided to suspend the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from Sunday after a
second contamination was spotted, local government officials announced on
Sunday. Okinawa
officials took the decision a day after the Japanese health ministry said that it
had launched a probe into the death of two men who had been administered the
Moderna vaccine from “contaminated” batches. Two men, aged 30 and 38, had died
after receiving their second dose of vaccine in early August.

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Okinawa has decided to partially postpone the vaccination programme following
the developments. “We are suspending the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine as
foreign substances were found in some of them,” the Okinawa prefecture said in
a statement. Local media reports indicate that the lots affected by the
contamination spotted in Okinawa on Saturday are different from the 1.63
million doses suspended after the two deaths.

Also Read | Japan suspends 1.63 million doses of Moderna over contamination

The vaccine doses that apparently led to the death of the two men were
drawn from one of three batches suspended by the government on Thursday after
several vials were found to be contaminated, reports AFP. The Japanese health
ministry said that while it was investigating the cause of death and it is
currently unknown if there’s a causal link with the vaccine.

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“At this time, we do not have any evidence that these deaths are caused by
the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and it is important to conduct a formal
investigation to determine whether there is any connection,” Moderna and its
Japanese distributor Takeda said in a joint statement on Saturday.

The statement further said that the vials have been sent to a qualified lab
for analysis and initial findings will be available next week. The nature of particles
found in the vials is still unknown.

Japan has been battling a record surge of COVID-19 cases over weeks because
of the Delta variant. Nearly 44% of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated.
Large parts of the country are under strict pandemic curbs.