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SEOUL – South Korea arranged for 23 million more people to buy coronavirus vaccines, said its prime minister on Tuesday, a day after officials said delays and concerns about effectiveness meant fewer people would be vaccinated in the first quarter of the year.
The deals include Novavax vaccines for 20 million people and Pfizer products for 3 million, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said in statements at a meeting that was broadcast.
“The government has been working to bring in sufficient supplies in the beginning, but there is growing uncertainty about our vaccination plan for the first half due to production problems with global drug manufacturers and international competition to adopt more vaccines,” he said.
MEASURES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH KOREA AGAINST CORONAVIRUS HURT ECONOMY
With a population of 52 million, South Korea has already secured enough doses for 56 million people from COVAX, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, and is expected to start its first vaccination phase on February 26.
South Korea arranged for 23 million more people to buy coronavirus vaccines, its prime minister said on Tuesday, a day after officials said delays and concerns about effectiveness meant that fewer people would be vaccinated in the country. first quarter of the year. (FOR
On Monday, officials said they would not use the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in people aged 65 and over, reversing an earlier decision and reducing initial vaccination targets due to the delay in sending the COVAX global vaccine sharing scheme .
The country reduced its target for the first quarter of how many people would be vaccinated from 1.3 million to less than 760,000.
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The director of the Korean Disease Prevention and Control Agency (KDCA), Jeong Eun-kyeong, said the first quarter adjustments should not affect the goal of achieving “herd immunity” by November, although some independent health experts have cast doubt on the feasibility of this schedule.
The KDCA reported 457 additional cases of coronavirus at midnight on Monday, bringing South Korea’s total to 84,325 with 1,534 deaths.