Speaking at a regular press conference in Tokyo on September 14, Minister Motegi said that, based on requests from relevant countries and territories, Japan has decided to provide 500,000 doses to Taiwan (China), 400,000 doses to Vietnam, 300,000 doses to Thailand, and 100,000 doses to Brunei, stressing that the batches will be delivered as soon as possible.
The latest batch has brought Japan’s total donations to 3.9 million doses for Taiwan (China), and to 3.18 million for Vietnam, he said.
According to Minister Motegi, Japan has so far given out more than 23 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Japan to countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Pacific islands.
Additionally, Japan has pledged US$ 1 billion and 30 million doses to the COVAX programme, which is overseen by the GAVI Alliance and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Meanwhile, as of September 12, nearly 80 million people in Japan had been vaccinated, with about 64.5 million having received two shots.
