A COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed and distributed by Pfizer and Biontech. AFP=Yonhap News
The Japanese government has officially approved the use of a new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine from Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company. This is the first time that the Corona 19 vaccine has been approved in Japan.
According to the Kyodo News Agency and NHK on the 14th, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare made a decision to officially approve the Pfizer vaccine on that day.
Earlier, Pfizer signed a contract with the Japanese government to supply 72 million vaccines and applied for approval in December of last year. Subsequently, a clinical trial procedure in Japan was conducted to confirm the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine.
In the beginning of last month, the number of new confirmed cases in Japan reached 8,000 per day, and although it has decreased to 1,000 this month, the cumulative confirmed number has exceeded 410,000. Meanwhile, the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare expert meeting decided on the 12th that the Pfizer vaccine was safe and decided to give it special approval.
With the completion of the Pfizer vaccine approval process, the Japanese government plans to start vaccination centering on key medical workers such as national hospitals from the 17th.
In Korea, the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be given to medical staff first. On the 15th, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the plan to implement the corona 19 vaccination in February and March. The targets for the first quarter of vaccination were 50,000 medical staff who treat corona19 patients, and 780,000 elderly and workers in nursing hospitals and nursing facilities. Among them, the Pfizer vaccine was caught by inoculating medical staff, so there is a high possibility that residents and workers in nursing hospitals and nursing facilities would get the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Reporter Lee Ga-young [email protected]