Japan’s Moderna Covid vaccine rollout hit by recall and contamination scares

Foreign materials including stainless steel identified in batches of Covid-19 vaccine though no safety or efficacy issues have been reported

The Moderna coronavirus vaccine programme in Japan has been hit by a series of contamination incidents, prompting it to recall 1.63m doses found to contain metal fragments.

Other potential contaminants have been identified in separate batches over the past week but so far no injuries as a result of those vaccines have been reported.