Japan opens mass vaccination centres two months before Tokyo Olympics

Elderly people go out of the newly opened mass vaccination centre after receiving the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in Tokyo (Koji Sasahara/AP)

Japan has mobilised military doctors and nurses to vaccinate elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a one-year delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country’s 36 million elderly people by the end of July, despite scepticism it is possible.