SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency has allowed healthcare professionals to extract extra doses of vials of coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
The decision came on Saturday after some health professionals who were administering AstraZeneca injections reported to authorities that they still saw additional doses left in the vials that had been used for 10 injections each.
KDCA official Jeong Gyeong-shil said skilled workers may be able to squeeze an extra dose or two from each vial if they use low-volume syringes designed to reduce the waste of medicines and vaccines.
However, she said the KDCA does not allow healthcare professionals to combine vaccines left in different bottles to create more doses.
The KDCA previously authorized 10 injections for each AstraZeneca bottle and six for each Pfizer bottle.
South Korea, which launched its public vaccination campaign on Friday, is administering AstraZeneca vaccines to residents and workers in long-term care facilities and Pfizer vaccines to frontline healthcare professionals.
South Korea reported on Saturday another 405 cases of coronavirus.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– More than 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday, after a two-day delay due to export procedures, offering a second inoculation option for the city. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be offered to approximately 2.4 million eligible residents of priority groups, such as people aged 60 and over and healthcare professionals. About 70,000 residents enrolled in the vaccination program, which began on Friday, will receive vaccines developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac. Sinovac vaccines were the first to arrive last week. Registration details for those who wish to receive photos from Pfizer-BioNTech have not yet been announced. Hong Kong closed deals for a total of 22.5 million doses, of which 7.5 million each from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Fosun Pharma, which is delivering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The government has already approved the Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
– New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, is returning to a seven-day blockade after a new unexplained case of coronavirus was found. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement on Saturday night, after an urgent meeting with the main legislators of the Council of Ministers. She said the blockade would take effect on Sunday morning. Auckland earlier this month was put on a three-day blockade after new cases of the most contagious variant first found in Britain were found. New Zealand pursued a zero-tolerance virus elimination strategy and successfully eradicated the spread from the community before the last cases were found this month. Ardern said the last patient had had symptoms since the beginning of the week and may have infected others. The rest of New Zealand will also have greater restrictions.
– The Sri Lankan Ministry of Health has decided to vaccinate all people aged 30 and over in the high-risk areas of the capital Colombo and in the suburbs, where cases of COVID-19 are on the rise. There have been 466 new cases in the past 24 hours. Sri Lanka started its vaccination campaign in January, starting with health professionals. So far, more than 406,000 people have received their injections.