Japan’s health ministry on Monday approved the production and sale of vaccines against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with the government to send the shots to local municipalities from September 19.
The additional inoculation, believed to be effective against the BA.5 subvariant of COVID-19 now prevalent in Japan, will initially be targeted toward the elderly and medical workers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said he plans to expand from mid-October eligibility for the additional shots for everyone over the age of 12 who has received at least two vaccine doses.
The policy is part of wider preparations to provide over 1 million shots per day between October and November to curb the spread of infections during the winter period.
Currently, a booster shot can only be administered a minimum five months after the last vaccine dose. But as a panel of experts suggested that the interval period should be shortened, the health ministry will reach a conclusion by the end of October on whether to cut the time between vaccinations.
The Omicron boosters have properties derived from the BA.1 subvariant, as well as the original strain that spread early in the pandemic.
U.S. pharmaceutical firms Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. had each applied to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to produce and sell their Omicron vaccines tailored for the highly transmissible variant.
