Tokyo Olympics: Japan mobilises military for mass vaccination centres 2 months before Games

People wait to be processed at a newly opened mass vaccination centre in Tokyo on May 24. Photo / AP

Japan mobilised military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka today as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a one-year delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country's 36 million elderly people by the end of July, despite scepticism it's possible.

Worries about public safety while many Japanese remain unvaccinated has prompted growing protests and calls for cancelling the Games, which are set to start on July 23.

Suga's government has repeatedly expanded the area and duration of a virus state of emergency since late April and has made its virus-fighting measures stricter. But with Covid-19 cases still persistently high, Suga says vaccines are key to getting the infections under control.

At the two mass inoculation centres staffed by Japan's Self-Defence Forces, the aim is to inoculate up to 10,000 people per day in Tokyo and another 5000 per day in Osaka for the next three months.

People inoculated at the centres today were the first in Japan to receive doses of Moderna, one of two foreign-developed vaccines Japan approved on Friday.

Previously Japan had used only Pfizer, and only about 2 per cent of the population of 126 million had received the required two doses.

Japan began vaccinating healthcare workers in mid-February while sticking to a standard requirement of clinical testing inside Japan — a decision many experts said was statistically meaningless and only caused delays.

Vaccinations for the next group — the elderly, who are more likely to suffer serious Covid-19 effects — started in mid-April but has been slowed by bureaucratic bumbling including reservation procedures, unclear distribution plans and shortage of medical staff to give shots.

Completion of Japan-developed vaccines is still uncertain, but Japanese government officials hope the approvals on Friday of Moderna and AstraZeneca will help speed up the rollout.

Progress is still unclear because of the dire shortage of medical staff who can give shots while they are already busy treating Covid patients. AstraZeneca's plans are also pending due to concerns about its rare blood-clotting in a country known for low confidence in vaccines.

Separately, several local governments, including Aichi in central Japan and Gunma near Tokyo and Miyagi in the north, were also to open their own large vaccination centres today.