The Latest: Japan will begin giving COVID vaccine next week

Japan will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine next week, with medical experts at the pandemic’s frontlines the first recipients

Virus Outbreak Japan Daily Life (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

TOKYO — Japan will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine next week, with medical experts at the pandemic's frontlines the first recipients.

“We will make every effort to prepare for everything,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a meeting of ruling party officials Wednesday where he confirmed the timing of the first inoculations.

He called for cooperation by doctors, nurses and local municipalities to smoothly carry out the massive inoculations.

A health ministry panel is expected to give its first greenlight for a COVID-19 vaccine — one developed by Pfizer Inc. — within days.

Japan has also signed agreements with AstraZeneca of Britain and Moderna Inc. of the United States to provide a total of more than 310 million vaccine doses, or enough to cover the country’s entire population, this year. Pfizer is to provide 144 million of them.

Japanese officials have raised concerns about supply uncertainties of vaccines coming from Europe.

Vaccines are considered key to holding the postponed Tokyo Olympics this summer.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— South Africa will administer Johnson & Johnson vaccine to its front-line healthcare workers next week after scrapping AstraZeneca's

— Israel’s ultra-Orthodox reject criticism of their virus defiance, say they are defending their way of life

— House Democrats advance on major portions of President Joe Biden’s pandemic plan, including school relief and minimum wage

— Absence of Lunar New Year dragon dances in Philippine capital is a palpable sign pandemic crisis is spilling into the new year

— What quarantine is like in Japan and what it might look like for the Tokyo Olympics in a few months

— Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Three sons of Cambodian leader Hun Sen were inoculated against COVID-19 as the country began distributing vaccines donated from its closest ally, China.

Hun Manet, the head of the army and Hun Sen’s eldest son, urged all Cambodians to be vaccinated and thanked China for the donation.

“I trust this vaccine and that is why I have been vaccinated with it,” Hun Manet said.

China is donating 1 million doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, enough for half a million people, and the first shipment of 600,000 doses arrived in Cambodia on Sunday.

Hun Sen’s two sons-in-law, government ministers and other officials also were vaccinated at a state-run hospital Wednesday.

Hun Sen himself backtracked on receiving the vaccine because he is 68.

In China, the Sinopharm vaccine was approved only for people ages 18-59 because that is the population studied in clinical trials. While there is not yet data on its effectiveness for other age groups, other countries have discretion to use it in older people.