Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2021 December 1 - 7 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP Koike calls for governments to support increasing COVID-19 vaccination rate in Africa

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira, regarding the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 omicron variant in Africa and Europe, emphasized the need to provide support in order to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Africa by stating, "An increase in COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in Africa will lead to protection of people's lives in Japan."

Appearing on the BS-TBS program "Hodo 1930" aired on December 3, Koike said that the WHO and UNICEF issued statements on the urgent need to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination in Africa and dose donations of COVID-19 vaccines to African countries where the vaccination rate remains at between 0-20%, and that Japan should respond to these calls.

Referring to the issues of fragile healthcare services and poverty in Africa, Koike said, "Major capitalist countries, including Japan, are responsible for having created such a situation in Africa."

Regarding what Japan should do to prevent the omicron variant from spreading domestically, Koike said, "Under the assumption that the community spread of the variant has already begun in Japan, the government should conduct a genome analysis in order to quickly identify and confirm the omicron variant and analyze as many infection cases as possible."

Japan is planning to conduct a third dose of COVID-19 vaccination eight months after the second vaccine shot, but Koike pointed out that the Pfizer vaccine is less effective after six months. He said, "The U.K. government has additionally made contracts with Pfizer and Moderna to secure 114 million more doses. The Japanese government should also enter into an additional contract to respond to people's concerns."

He added, "Japan has a superior network of community-based town doctors and healthcare facilities. The government should utilize this network and immediately establish a system for booster shots while making sure of the efficacy and safety of the third dose vaccination."