TOKYO: Japanese people temporarily returning home from abroad started to receive novel coronavirus vaccine shots Sunday.

The COVID-19 vaccinations for such people are being carried out at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda and Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo.

Reservations are necessary for the inoculation program, which uses the vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. Hundreds of people in total will get their shots at the airports a day, according to the Foreign Ministry.

With some 40,000 people hoping to receive vaccinations, the program is expected to run until early January 2022.

A 34-year-old male employee of an automobile-related company who arrived at the Narita airport from Mexico on Sunday morning said, “It is uncertain if I can get both shots in Mexico, so I’m grateful to be vaccinated in Japan.”

JIJI Press