Korea to Secure at Least 2.7 Million Doses of 'COVAX Vaccine' in First Half of the Year

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] It has been revealed that South Korea secured at least 2.7 million doses (1.35 million people) of COVID-15 vaccines through the COVAX facility by the first half of this year.

The international vaccine joint procurement and distribution project, COVAX, announced its first provisional vaccine allocation plan containing this information during a virtual press briefing on the 3rd (local time).

By the first half of this year, COVAX will deliver 337 million doses, equivalent to 3.3% of the global population, to 145 countries. Specifically, 336 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered in the first quarter.

Among these, South Korea will receive a total of 2,713,800 doses, including at least 2,596,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by SK Bioscience and 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Considering that both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines require two doses, this amounts to approximately 1.35 million people. This is the minimum quantity, and depending on the pharmaceutical companies' production capacity, the vaccines delivered through COVAX could increase to about 4.38 million doses.

North Korea is expected to receive 1,992,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine produced by India's Serum Institute (SII). North Korea is one of the 92 low-income countries eligible for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC), which supplies vaccines to developing countries funded by donations from developed countries.

COVAX, jointly established in April last year by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, aims to equitably supply vaccines to 20% of the global population by the end of this year.

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