Japan’s Much-Maligned Vaccine Campaign Quietly Gathers Speed
- Pace of vaccinations has increased fourfold in two weeks
- Japan is doing ‘exceptionally well,’ says one critic
Nurses wait to inoculate people with a dose of the Moderna Inc. Covid-19 vaccine at a newly-opened mass vaccination site in Tokyo, Japan, on May 24.
Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images/Bloomberg
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After some false starts, Japan’s much-delayed vaccine rollout is quietly picking up steam.
The seven-day average of doses has quadrupled in just two weeks, with about a quarter of the nearly 14 million shots given coming in the past week alone. A flurry of initiatives are being implemented or floated to further ramp up the drive -- among them an expansion of those qualified to administer the shots as well as mass vaccination at workplaces and in “nighttime entertainment” districts.