A COVID-19 inoculation site for supposedly vaccine-hesitant youth in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward got off to a rocky start Friday after the capital dramatically underestimated the size of the crowd that would turn up.
Registration was supposed to begin at 11:50 a.m., but a line had amassed by sunrise and every slot was filled by 7:30 a.m. According to officials, around 15 people were already waiting in line by the time staff arrived at the facility at 4 a.m. Some had been waiting overnight.
“I live in Yokohama so there’s no way I can get here that early,” said Arisa, a 23-year-old who works in Tokyo and gave only her first name. Having had no luck reserving a slot at a vaccine site in Kanagawa Prefecture, she thought she would try her luck in Shibuya — but tickets had run out by the time she arrived at around 10:30 a.m. “I don’t know what to do now,” she said.