Japan has secured 144 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, but may only be able to use 120 million doses. In the country, there is a shortage of sufficient syringes to remove six doses from each vial. The US and the European Union are also doing additional work to acquire a special syringe.
Millions of doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine are likely to be thrown into Japan because the country lacks sufficient special syringes to extract the final dose from each vial. Pfizer’s two doses are sold in a vaccine vial that contains six doses, but a special syringe is required to remove the sixth dose and Japan does not have a very special syringe.
Japan may have to throw million doses of Covid vaccine
The Health Minister said that therefore it would probably be able to extract only five doses per vial. According to the news, the syringe used in Japan can extract only five doses. This will certainly not be enough, despite using all the syringes that extract the six doses. Japan’s government last month announced an agreement with Pfizer to purchase 144 million doses of the vaccine, but would be able to use only 120 million doses without a sufficient syringe to remove the final dose. The number of doses to be handed over to Japan will need to be revised.
Final dose cannot be removed due to lack of sufficient special syringe
The change in estimates means that in Japan, Pfizer’s vaccine will allow 60 million people to be vaccinated against the actual 72 million people. According to the report, the Japanese government has urged medical equipment manufacturers to increase production of special syringes.
Let me tell you that the issue of lack of syringe is not only with Japan, but Sweden has also said that it does not have a special syringe to remove all six doses from each vial. The United States and the European Union are doing additional work on acquiring enough syringes to remove the entire amount of doses from Pfizer’s vaccine vial.
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