All national papers highlighted the disclosure by Administrative Reform Minister Kono yesterday that some 53,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Okinawa next week in response to their requests. As the central government has secured 2 million doses of the UK product for delivery in August and September, the cabinet member said the remaining doses may be distributed to other prefectures currently under a quasi-state of emergency on request.