980 Billion KRW for Domestic Vaccine Development Support... Ministry of Health and Welfare Allocates 1.5502 Trillion KRW in Supplementary Budget

500 Billion KRW for COVID-19 Damage Support and Livelihood Stabilization

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 1st that it has prepared an additional supplementary budget of 1.5502 trillion KRW to support COVID-19 damage relief and vaccine development.

First, about 500 billion KRW was allocated for COVID-19 damage relief and livelihood stabilization. Single-parent families receiving basic living security benefits, legally designated low-income support, and single-parent family childcare support will receive a consumption support fund of 100,000 KRW per person. The target population is 2.96 million people, with a related budget of 296 billion KRW. Starting in October, the early implementation of the "complete abolition of the support obligation standard," which provides livelihood benefits regardless of the presence of a support obligor if the recipient's income and assets meet the criteria, will support 50,000 households with 47.6 billion KRW.

Additionally, the period for applying the temporary relaxation criteria for emergency welfare due to COVID-19, etc., has been extended until September 30, using 91.5 billion KRW to support low-income crisis households. The target is 60,000 households. As participation in self-support work has increased among low-income groups struggling to find jobs due to COVID-19, 24.8 billion KRW has been allocated to expand participation quotas, and 15.5 billion KRW has been set aside to support continued work for 12,000 existing self-support workers expected to suspend participation due to budget shortages. Furthermore, to compensate for the decreased income of the elderly caused by COVID-19, 16 billion KRW will be provided to expand support for public activity-type and social service-type senior jobs.

An additional budget was also prepared for COVID-19 quarantine and vaccine sectors. Compensation of 921.1 billion KRW will be provided for costs and losses incurred by medical institutions, pharmacies, etc., following government and local government orders in response to COVID-19, and 14.7 billion KRW will be allocated to expand temporary personnel support to ensure smooth operation of public health center duties that perform comprehensive infectious disease response functions.

In the vaccine sector, 18 billion KRW has been additionally allocated to support vaccine and raw material production facilities and equipment, and 2.8 billion KRW for training domestic vaccine specialists. To expedite the development of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines, clinical costs will also be supported for vaccine development companies. A related budget of 98 billion KRW has been prepared.

According to this supplementary budget proposal, the Ministry of Health and Welfare's total expenditure for this year increased from 90.8854 trillion KRW to 92.4356 trillion KRW.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare official stated, "Once the supplementary budget proposal is confirmed by the National Assembly, we will thoroughly prepare to ensure its swift execution and actively strive to protect the safety of the people from COVID-19 and support the livelihood economy."

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