Japan says part of Pfizer vaccines may be discarded

Millions of people in Japan won’t receive Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine as planned due to a shortage of specialist syringes – an oversight that could frustrate the country’s inoculation program, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

Standard syringes in use in Japan are unable to extract the sixth and final dose from each vial manufactured by the US drugmaker, according to the health minister, Norihisa Tamura.

Japan has secured 144m shots of the Pfizer vaccine – enough for 72 million people – assuming that each vial contained six doses.

According to Pfizer, each recipient requires two jabs, three weeks apart, to increase the level of protection.

But a shortage of low ‘dead space’ syringes – which have narrow plungers that can push out any leftover vaccine – means vaccinators in Japan will have to use mainly standard syringes capable of extracting only five doses per vial, or enough for 60 million people.

"The syringes used in Japan can only draw five doses," Tamura said, according to the Kyodo news agency. "We will use all the syringes we have that can draw six doses, but it will, of course, not be enough as more shots are administered."

The government is requesting medical equipment manufacturers to increase the production of specialist syringes.

When Japan begins its COVID immunization program in mid-February – several months later than many other developed economies – health workers who cannot extract the sixth dose will have to discard them, the government’s top spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, said.