Japan approves Moderna, AstraZeneca vaccines

Pedestrians wearing protective masks, following the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, walk underneath Japanese national flags at a shopping district in Tokyo

Japan formally approved Moderna and AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines on Friday, but the latter will not be used immediately because of lingering concern over very rare blood clots. The decision comes just over two months before the pandemic-postponed Olympics, with growing disquiet in Japan about the country's comparatively slow vaccine rollout. Nine regions including Tokyo are already under a virus state of emergency, with the measure now being expanded to Okinawa in the south. Until now, only the Pfizer-BioNTech was available in Japan, after being approved in February, and so far just two percent of the country's 125 million residents are fully vaccinated.