Narita, JAPAN: The first shipment of major US drugmaker Pfizer Inc.’s novel coronavirus vaccine arrived at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, on Friday.

The cargo was carried on an All Nippon Airways flight from Brussels, a production site of the vaccine.

The vaccine, which needs to be stored at about minus 70 degrees Celsius, will be kept in a storage equipped with ultralow temperature freezers and be delivered in a frozen state as soon as the vaccination schedule is decided.

On Friday night, an expert panel of the health ministry is expected to support plans to approve the vaccine. Later, the ministry is expected to give its formal nod to the vaccine under a fast-track system to simplify screening procedures.

Medical workers, mainly those at national hospitals across Japan, will become the first group of people to get a vaccine shot in the country on Wednesday.

The ministry has concluded a contract with Pfizer to receive 144 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.

As each vial of the vaccine is expected to be used for five shots with syringes secured in Japan, fewer than the initially planned six shots, the number of people who will be inoculated may fall from the initially planned 72 million.

JIJI Press