Unused shots piling up in Japan amid slow rollout

TOKYO — Unused COVID-19 vaccines in Japan are set to reach tens of millions of doses, as the country is poised to approve two more shots in coming weeks and the pace of its inoculation campaign remains slow due to manpower and logistical bottlenecks.

Japan imported 28 million doses of Pfizer Inc.’s

COVID-19 vaccine through late April, but has so far used only 15 per cent of the stockpile, with the remaining 24 million doses sitting in freezers.

Japan’s vaccine supply is set to increase sharply as regulators are preparing to decide on May 20 on approval of the shots developed by Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc., national broadcaster NHK reported late on Thursday.

The first batch of the Moderna vaccine had already arrived.