Coronavirus: Japan starts freezer buying spree; Indonesia bets on Chinese vaccine

Name: World gears up to distribute Covid-19 vaccines as drug makers await medical regulator approvals
Uploaded: 2020-12-10T06:45:21.000Z
Duration: 3 min 13 s
Description: World gears up to distribute Covid-19 vaccines as drug makers await medical regulator approvals

Tokyo to buy 10,500 deep freezers to store Covid-19 shots as it prepares for the ‘extraordinary task’ of protecting its people

Elsewhere, India’s cases are stabilising and analysts warn Indonesia may feel indebted to China for doses of its Sinovac vaccine

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Containers are converted into makeshift wards to accommodate newly infected Covid-19 patients at a hospital in Seoul. Photo: Xinhua

Agencies

Published: 2:45pm, 10 Dec 2020Updated: 11:12am, 11 Dec 2020

Japan said on Thursday it will buy 10,500 deep freezers to store novel coronavirus vaccines as it prepares for the “extraordinary task” of protecting people from the virus, as the capital Tokyo reported a record number of new cases.

Japan has agreements to buy a total of 290 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna.

Pfizer’s vaccines need to be kept at around minus 70 Celsius, and Moderna’s at about minus 20C, posing complex logistics challenges in rolling them out.

“An extraordinary task awaits us,” Tokuaki Shobayashi, director general of the ministry’s health service bureau, told a media briefing.

Tokyo reported 602 new cases on Thursday, while the daily tally for the entire nation was 2,810. Japan has recorded 168,573 infections since the pandemic began, including 2,465 deaths.

03:13

World gears up to distribute Covid-19 vaccines as drug makers await medical regulator approvals

The health ministry said it is too early to say when Japan would get the vaccines, but AstraZeneca has announced that, of the 120 million doses to be allocated to Japan, 30 million would likely be supplied in the first quarter of 2021.