PHOTO
TOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) - Technical problems derailedJapan's coronavirus vaccination booking system on Wednesday,compounding frustration over the government's handling of newoutbreaks of infections and an inoculation drive that criticssay has been woefully slow.
The online system to book a vaccine crashed in many placesincluding parts of Tokyo and the western city of Minoh becauseof a global problem with U.S. cloud computing vendorSalesforce.com Inc, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Salesforce chief technology officer Parker Harris said onTwitter that the company was experiencing a "major disruption",later updating to say services had been mostly restored.
"Making an appointment for a vaccination seems to be a tallorder for the elderly, wrote Twitter user @obachan66972352.
"Please consider making it possible to get the vaccinewithout an appointment.
A representative of the health ministry's vaccine office wasnot immediately available when contacted by Reuters.
The ministry has faced numerous technical problemsthroughout the pandemic, from a contact tracing application thatfailed to pass on vital information to a cumbersome databasethat health workers were reluctant to use.
Japan has only inoculated 2.8% of its population, the lowestrate among wealthy countries despite an ambitious governmenttarget of giving shots to its 36 million elderly people by July,when the Olympics Games are due to open in Tokyo.
The campaign was initially slow because of tight supplies ofimported doses of Pfizer Inc's
Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccines, has urged thepublic to be patient and to take steps to streamline the bookingprocess.
Christophe Weber, chief executive of Japan's biggestdrugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co
(Reporting by Rocky SwiftEditing by Robert Birsel) ((rocky.swift@thomsonreuters.com))
