The Democratic Party to Spend an Additional 1.3 Trillion Won on COVID-19 Vaccine Supply... Vaccination Possible for 44 Million People

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The Democratic Party of Korea is reportedly pushing to allocate an additional 1.3 trillion won in next year's main budget to secure 44 million doses of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, as of the 29th. This figure is significantly higher than the 30 million doses announced as under negotiation by Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo on the 26th.

This amount corresponds to about 85% of the total domestic population (51.77 million) based on the Population and Housing Census. Although the COVID-19 vaccine budget was not included in the government's proposal due to the vaccine not being selected yet, the acceleration of domestic and international vaccine development has led to budget review during the regular National Assembly session.

Previously, the Democratic Party stated it would consider the People Power Party's position to include the third round of disaster relief funds in next year's main budget rather than as a supplementary budget, considering the resurgence of COVID-19. Accordingly, it appears they have decided to separately include the vaccine budget in the main budget as well.

When combined with the 1.3 trillion won vaccine budget and the third disaster relief fund, the total related expenditure is expected to reach around 5 trillion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.