Japan will start discussing as early as next week whether to administer third coronavirus vaccine shots, potentially by the end of the year, amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
Health experts on a government subcommittee on the coronavirus vaccine are expected to take up the matter, as well as the possibility of combining doses of vaccines produced by different manufacturers, the sources said. Three COVID-19 vaccines — those developed by Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC — are currently available in Japan. All are administered in two doses.
The vaccine makers have said third shots would be necessary to increase protection, with a number of breakthrough cases in which fully vaccinated people have contracted COVID-19 reported in Japan and abroad. Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the country's vaccination rollout, said late last month the health ministry is weighing cross vaccination to help ease supply concerns and accelerate the country's inoculation program.