TOKYO – The Japanese government on Tuesday approved a bill to pay all the costs of administrating a vaccine against the novel coronavirus to all residents and to compensate suppliers in the event any serious side effects occur.
To that end, the government has earmarked a budget of 671.4 billion yen ($6.4 billion).
It has agreed with British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to receive 120 million doses of vaccine from each company when successfully developed and is negotiating with US firm Moderna Inc. for 40 million doses or more.
Once the government provides vaccines free of charge, residents will be strongly advised to get vaccinated. The government may still choose to offer vaccines whose effectiveness is not very high and let people decide whether they want to receive it.(Kyodo News)
