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Japan rolls out Covid vaccination for children aged 6 months to 4 years

The vaccines targeting the original strain will be administered over three shots for the young children, each containing one-tenth of the dose given to adults.

Tokyo: Japan began Covid-19 vaccination for children aged between six months and four years on Tuesday at a hospital in Tokyo.

Japan’s health ministry started to distribute the vaccines to municipalities on Monday. Inoculations are set to follow in other places of the country when the local governments are ready, Xinhua news agency reported.

The vaccines targeting the original strain will be administered over three shots for the young children, each containing one-tenth of the dose given to adults.

The first two shots must be administered three weeks apart, while a third dose will be given at least eight weeks after the second inoculation.

The health ministry approved the Pfizer vaccine earlier in October, making it the first Covid-19 vaccine available in Japan for that age group.

The move expanded the eligibility criteria for Covid-19 vaccination to almost all age groups. In February, Japan expanded the vaccination programme to include children aged 5 to 11.

This post was last modified on October 26, 2022 8:48 am

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Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. The service reports news, views and analysis from the subcontinent about the country, across a wide range of subjects.

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