Japan has
started its COVID-19 vaccination programme ahead of the Tokyo
2020 Olympics against
the COVID-19 on Wednesday and the healthcare workers are the first ones to get
the jab. Japan has begun carrying out the first shot at a Tokyo
hospital on Wednesday morning has approved only the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
till now. Tokyo Medical Centre director Kazuhiro Araki volunteered to be the
first person at the facility to get the shot.

Araki told reporters after receiving the shot, “The
vaccine plays an important role in anti-coronavirus measures. So I thought as a
director I should take the lead and get the shot.” He added, “I don’t
like getting shots very much. But it wasn’t painful, so it was good. I was
relieved”, reported AFP.

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Another one of the first people in the country to receive the
shot outside of clinical trials was Nurse Rino Yoshida. She said to national broadcaster NHK that “I felt it going in but it wasn’t sore. There’s
no real pain or swelling”. “The mortality rate and the risk of
illness have gone down overseas, so hopefully vaccinations starting in Japan
can change the situation here,” added Yoshida.

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A total of 800 people are in line to get the jab including
administrative officers with twelve staffs at the facility are being vaccinated
on Wednesday, in front of the media.

Japan is planning to start vaccinating 40,000 healthcare
workers throughout Japan, and further will study the effects of the two-dose
vaccine on 20,000 of them. Local media said that following the three weeks of
vaccination, the doses will be checked, with the people in the study group who
has been asked to keep daily records of any side effects or reactions, reported
AFP.

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Following the ongoing inoculation programme, Japan plans to vaccinate
around 3.7 million health workers from March and then 36 million people under
the age group of 65 and above from April.

Then it will extend to those with preexisting conditions or
working with the elderly and lastly to the common citizens. However, for their
timings only few details has been out till now. Japan’s minister Taro Kono overseeing
vaccinations told media on Tuesday that he had “no idea” how much of
the population will be vaccinated by this summer’s postponed Olympics.

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The country has recorded approx 418,000 COVID-19 cases with
over 7,000 deaths till now.