Why Japan has stopped using more than a million doses of Moderna vaccine

Last Thursday Japan announced suspension of use of more than 1.63 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, after having detected abnormal substances in one of the batches received.

According to the press agency EFE, the spokesperson for the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare confirmed that three batches of the recalled vaccines were produced at a plant in Spain.

The Ministry has ensured that the doses withdrawn were produced in the same plant and at the same time, and correspond to lot numbers 3004667, 3004734 and 3004956; However, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato explained that the bottles belonged to one of the three lots mentioned, but as a precaution the other two were withdrawn.

At a press conference, the spokesperson said that “There is no indication” that the contaminated doses were applied, since medical staff generally inspect doses before administering them, said the Japanese Ministry of Defense, in charge of vaccination centers.

Likewise, the pharmaceutical group Takeda, which imports and distributes the Moderna vaccine in Japan, detailed in a statement that “abnormal substances” were found in a batch of vials employed in one of the vaccination points of the Japanese archipelago.

For what the company has decided to suspend the use of the three batches from the same factory because “it is not excluded that there is a risk” linked to the contamination of the doses.

“After consultation with the Ministry of Health, we have decided to suspend the use“Out of all the vaccines in three lots, that’s 1.63 million doses in total,” the group said.

In addition, Takeda asked the American laboratory Moderna to conduct an “urgent” investigation into the contamination of vaccines.

For its part, the Spanish Ministry of Health indicated that the only modern vaccine lots produced in the country and that contained impurities are those that Japan has removed.

“All available data indicates that no further lots would be affected“, Explained the Ministry of Health in a statement sent to the agency AFP.

And he reiterated that contaminated vaccines “have not been distributed in any other country”.

“Japanese and Spanish authorities assess the risk of the presence of these particles and on the basis of these analyzes, the necessary measures will be taken, ”said the Spanish ministry.

Coronavirus in Japan

According to the agency PA, Japan extended the state of emergency for the second week in a row on Wednesday and imposed restrictions in eight other prefectures, while the spike in infections is slashing the country’s health system due to cases of the delta variant.

The capital, according to the agency, has been in a state of emergency since July 12. the numbers of daily infections have multiplied 10 times more since then, there are now more than 5,000 people infected in Tokyo and 25,000 in the country.

Last week the the government extended the state of alert until September 12 and extended it to 13 prefectures, against the previous six, including Tokyo. With four new regions in a state of “quasi-emergency”, 33 of the 47 prefectures must follow emergency measures.

Eight regions have gone from near emergency to total emergency, including Hokkaido and Miyagi in the north, Aichi and Gifu in the center, and Hiroshima and Okayama in the west.

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