People with mental illness and intellectual disabilities in Japan to be given vaccine priority

From Yahoo! Japan via The Asahi Shimbun

March 18 2021

Regarding the vaccination of the new coronavirus, an expert group of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved on the 18th that people with severe mental illness or intellectual disability will be included in the priority vaccination. It is said that the risk of death and hospitalization increases when infected. The subjects are those who are hospitalized due to mental illness and those who have a mentally handicapped person’s health and welfare notebook or nursing notebook.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, this will increase the number of people with chronic illnesses who are eligible for priority vaccination from an estimated 8.2 million to about 10.3 million.

Priority inoculation is to be given in the order of medical staff, elderly people, people with chronic conditions, and staff of facilities for the elderly. According to the expert group in December last year, patients with diabetes or cancer who are outpatients or hospitalized, and those with a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or more are classified as having mental illness or intellectual disability. Was not included.

However, overseas studies have reported that if a person with a mental illness or intellectual disability is infected with the new corona, the risk of death or hospitalization increases, and there is a request from related academic societies in Japan, so we decided to target it. ..