Japan expedites vaccine campaign for seniors amid criticism over sluggish rollout

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Monday purportedly began to speed up its highly criticized and sluggish rollout of COVID-19 inoculation campaign, informed sources said Monday.

The central government said that plans are currently in effect to ensure that all of Japan's 36 million senior citizens are inoculated by the end of July amid soaring cases of the virus and with no signs of it abating in urban areas even under extended emergency measures.

Thus far, Japan has only managed to vaccinate 240,000 of those aged 65 or older with the second of their two jabs, in stark contrast to the pace of other advanced countries.

In the following two weeks, the government said it will deliver enough vaccines to local municipalities to inoculate 9 million seniors, with all 36 million of this demographic having the requisite amount of vaccine doses delivered by the end of June.

Around 390 municipalities will launch the expedited inoculation program in the next seven days from Monday, marking the largest number per week.

The health ministry here has claimed that of the 390, 120 local governments launched the campaign as of Monday.

As criticism of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga grows over the slow national rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, all 47 prefectural governors in the country took aim at the central government Monday during an online meeting.

The National Governors' Association expressed their dissatisfaction and mounting fears about the rapid spread of new virus variants around the country, despite the extended and expanded state of emergency in Tokyo and other major urban areas last week.

With Japan already in the grip of a fourth wave of infections, Tokyo governor Koike Yuriko said during the meeting that the virus situation has "entered a new phase" and people should be aware they are facing the "risk of an explosive surge in infections."

Japan's public broadcaster NHK also quoted Okayama governor Ryuta Ibaragi as saying that new virus variants should be "treated as viruses that are completely different from the original strains that require bold countermeasures."

Ibaragi said if the central government maintains its current course of action then "it will be too late to take the next steps."

The country's governors are putting together a set of emergency recommendations for the central government as they feel not enough has been done.

Underscoring the severity of the situation, the health ministry said the number of COVID-19 patients designated as being in a "severe condition" reached a record high of 1,152 on Monday, topping Sunday's record of 1,144.