Tokyo, Dec 28 (FN Bureau) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday the government will consider providing Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for all people in the country as much as possible, media sources reported.
Kishida said in an interview with Kyodo News that the country’s anti-virus measures will be made as fully operational, so people can feel safe. Japan has started giving third shots to health care workers since the beginning of December, and senior citizens will follow from February next year, and then the general people later. The rate of those finishing two shots reached 77 percent at the end of December. Infection cases with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has not showed a surge in Japan, but community infection cases have been confirmed in some areas such as Osaka and Tokyo. The government has offered free PCR and antigen testing in such areas and barred new entries by foreigners from abroad since November. “Besides 31 million health care workers and elderly people, we’d like to consider bringing (the schedule for third shots) forward as much as possible,” Kishida said.
Japan adopted a program of measures to tackle loneliness and social isolation which entails an establishment of a round-the-clock consultation services, the Japanese media reported on Tuesday. “I want the government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations to work together to facilitate the implementation of the plan. Each ministry and structure should attentively heed to opinions and act taking them into account,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was quoted by NHK as saying. It is expected that various platforms will be developed to provide lonely people with communication and assistance in finding employment, according to the media. Earlier in February, the Japanese government appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto as the first minister of loneliness, which was already an acute social problem in the country, but was exacerbated in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.