Japan considers COVID-19 vaccination certificates as calls grow from abroad

Japan is considering issuing certificates to those who have been inoculated against the coronavirus, the minister in charge of vaccination efforts said Monday, as calls abroad for systems to ensure people can travel again with security.

“If applied internationally, we can issue inoculation certificates,” Taro Kono said during a diet session, adding that the certificates can be processed through government vaccine deployment management systems.

Kono’s latest observation is a rough approximation of a previous position that Japan would not be in favor of issuing this documentation and occurs as calls for this system grow in the United States and Europe. Israel has already introduced a COVID-19 vaccine certificate program.

Last month, Kono seemed to push forward the idea of ​​using COVID-19 vaccine certificates for official purposes, including as a vaccine passport that would allow international travel. He argued that doing so would exclude those who cannot be inoculated due to allergies.

With regard to the deployment of domestic vaccines, the government plans to urge companies to allow employees to take paid leave to receive shots and go to the hospital in case of side effects, in light of concerns that some people may have. about devoting time to going to vaccination sites, his top spokesman said.

“We will examine what steps we can take, including requests related to the issue to the business community, and consider whether the government should allow national public employees to take paid leave,” the chief cabinet secretary told a news conference. Katsunobu Kato.

Nippon Life Insurance Co. has decided not to charge if employees receive the vaccine during their work hours.

Japan began rolling out the vaccine last month, with health workers at the helm of the queue.

On Monday morning, the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE arrived at Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture.

The latest shipment from the drug factory to Belgium can cover 216,000 doses, with a vial containing six shots. The government plans to hand them over to prefecture governments for the inoculation of the 4.8 million health workers prioritized in the vaccination program.

Japan has lagged behind other countries, such as the United States and Britain, in vaccine development amid a shortage of supply due to delays in production at Pfizer’s factory and controls of export from the European Union.

But as the country is expected to receive more vaccines than initially planned starting next week starting next Monday, the central government hopes to secure and send enough supply for the two vaccines to cover health workers sooner. of the week of May 10th.