Japan opens vaccination centres ahead of Olympics

AFP, Tokyo :
 Japan opened its first mass vaccination centres on Monday in a bid to speed up a cautious Covid-19 inoculation programme with just two months until the virus-postponed Tokyo Olympics.
The two military-run centres in Tokyo and Osaka will administer thousands of shots daily, initially to elderly residents of the cities, as the country battles a fourth wave of virus cases.
Just two percent of Japan’s population of 125 million are fully vaccinated so far – compared to around 40 percent in the United States and 15 percent in France.
Criticism has been mounting over the relatively slow rollout, hindered by strict medical rules and complex bureaucracy, but the first people to get a jab at the Tokyo centre said they were excited to move on with their lives.
“It’s wonderful. I can rest easy now. For a long time, a year and a half, I was feeling rather anxious and tense,” Hideo Ishikawa, 73, told reporters.
Munemitsu Watanabe, a 71-year-old engineering lecturer, also expressed relief but said the rollout could have been quicker.
“Had they done it earlier and had 80 or 90 percent of people injected by the time of the Olympics, then the Games could be held more smoothly,” he said.