Japan will seek to import enough vaccine for the new H1N1 strain of influenza for 42 million people, while producing domestically enough for 18 million to cover more than 60 million people in all, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said Friday.
The government envisions prioritizing the inoculation of some 19 million people, mainly health care workers, pregnant women and patients with certain underlying illnesses, with domestically produced new-flu vaccines, while vaccinating another 35 million children and elderly people with imported vaccines.
The domestic vaccine is expected to become available around late October.
Meanwhile, a man in his 90s in Aomori Prefecture has died from suspected H1N1 flu, bringing the total number of deaths in Japan to 13.