Japan on Tuesday began offering coronavirus vaccinations for children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years, expanding the eligibility criteria for inoculation to almost all age groups.
While the first shots were give at a hospital in Tokyo, vaccinations for babies and young children in other areas of the country are set to follow as soon as local governments are ready, since deliveries of the vaccine began the previous day.
Children will be required to have a total of three doses of the vaccine, which targets the original strain discovered in Wuhan, China, in 2019, in order to achieve a similar level of immunity as those in other age groups.