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TOKYO, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The first batch of Pfizer Inc'sCOVID-19 vaccine arrived in Japan on Friday, local mediareported, with official approval for the shots expected withindays as the country races to control a third wave of infectionsahead of the Olympic Games.
A government health panel is due to deliberate on thevaccine later on Friday, when it is expected to green-light theshots for formal approval. Kyodo News reported that approvalwould come on Sunday.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said vaccinations wouldbegin from the middle of next week, starting with healthworkers, and the government hopes to have secured enoughsupplies for the whole populace by mid-year.
A Japanese health ministry official said he could notconfirm the reports of the vaccine's arrival due to securityreasons.
Media sent news alerts on the arrival of the first batch ofvaccines at Narita international airport, near Tokyo, amidconcerns about supply due to questions over the European Union'swillingness to allow COVID-19 vaccines to leave its territory.The number of doses that arrived was not reported.
The European Commission said on Thursday it has so farapproved all requests for the export of COVID-19 vaccines,including to Japan, since it set up a mechanism to monitorvaccine flows on Jan. 30.
Pfizer applied for Japanese approval in December for itsCOVID-19 vaccine, which is already being administered in theUnited States, Singapore and other parts of the world.
The Japanese government has arranged to buy 144 milliondoses, or enough to inoculate 72 million people, of the vaccinemade by the U.S. drugmaker and German partner BioNTech. It also has deals for vaccines being developed byAstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc, and Novavax Inc.
Japan has so far recorded about 410,000 coronavirus casesand 6,772 deaths, and is racing to get infections under controlespecially ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games starting in July.
Most of Japan is still under a state of emergency after itsthird and most deadly wave of the virus hit late last year,though cases and fatalities have trended lower in the pastcouple weeks.(Reporting by Rocky Swift and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing byLincoln Feast.)