Tokyo, Jun 25, 2021, SPA -- Japan may achieve herd immunity against the novel coronavirus by mid-October at the earliest thanks to a recent acceleration in the country's inoculation drive, Kyodo cited Nomura Securities Co. as saying in a research report released Thursday. Analysts at Japan's biggest brokerage said that reaching COVID-19 herd immunity, whereby at least 70 percent of the population is immune to the disease, is possible by the week of Oct. 18, about two months earlier than their previous estimate. Nomura revised the outlook after the government reached its target of administering 1 million vaccine doses per day about a month earlier than the company had predicted, the report said, adding it expects the vaccination pace to increase to as high as 1.25 million doses per day. A total of 5.5 percent of the country's population of 125 million have received two vaccine shots, while 15.6 percent have received one shot as of Thursday, according to the government tallies. The report estimated that obtaining herd immunity could potentially be pushed back to late February if the pace of inoculation peaks out at 1 million doses per day and quickly drops to around 500,000 per day. --SPA 22:20 LOCAL TIME 19:20 GMT 0031 www.spa.gov.sa/w1576787