Japan is considering sending a stock of AstraZeneca vaccine procured to Taiwan

Japan and its officials stated that the country is considering sharing its procured Covid-19 vaccines with other countries after a ruling party committee urges Japan to provide a proportion of AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan.

Taiwan has been witnessing a spike in infections rates across the country and has only been able to vaccinate about 1% of its population, whereas Japan has procured over 400 million doses, which is double what it requires for its adult population.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary stated that it’s important for ensuring equal access to effective and safe vaccines in across every country and region around the world so that we could achieve universal healthcare. Japan considers the situation and it is looking into curating course of policy on how Japan can provide vaccines to other countries.

The head of a Japanese ruling party committee on foreign relations stated that the government should seriously consider providing Taiwan with desired vaccine doses as soon as possible. He added that when Japan had requirements for masks, Taiwan sent over 2 million masks to Japan. Additionally, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry stated that the government is working hard to procure vaccines from manufacturers and the COVAX global sharing scheme.

Japan had recently approved Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine last week and has got into a contract to purchase over 120 million doses. However, there are no plans for the country to use the shots, amid rising concerns that have been raised internationally regarding blood clots.

Oxford-AstraZeneca’s local partner in Japan happens to be Daiichi Sankyo Co which had started production and packaging of the vaccines back in March and the stockpile is ready at around 30 million doses which are expected to expire by September if they are left unused. The amount is bound to rise as AstraZeneca had recently added Nipro as its third local partner for conducting filling and final packaging of the vaccine.