Government Cancels Entire Import of 17.48 Million Doses of COVAX Vaccines... Impact on Vaccination Decline

On the 31st, when COVID-19 vaccinations with Pfizer began for children aged 5 to 11, medical staff were preparing the vaccine at the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents at Mizmedi Hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The quarantine authorities will not introduce the additional COVID-19 vaccines scheduled to be imported this year from the international vaccine supply project 'COVAX Facility' (COVAX).

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 8th, "Apart from the currently imported quantity, no more COVAX vaccines will be supplied for domestic use."

This measure appears to reflect the situation where the number of COVID-19 vaccinations has decreased amid the Omicron surge, with the cumulative number of confirmed cases reaching 15 million. The government had secured 17.48 million doses of vaccines from COVAX and planned to import them by the end of the year.

As vaccinations decrease, the number of vaccines discarded due to expiration is also increasing. As of midnight on this day, the third-dose vaccination rate for those aged 60 and over reached 89.2%, and third doses are not recommended for COVID-19 recovered patients.

The quarantine authorities stated, "We are currently discussing how to handle the planned purchase volume from COVAX, including specific refund amounts and procedures," and "We are also discussing the possibility of donating the quantities already allocated to Korea overseas."

The government has also formed a task force (TF) to discuss the utilization of vaccines separately contracted with individual pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, apart from COVAX. The total number of additional vaccine doses scheduled to be imported from each pharmaceutical company by the end of the year is 125.94 million doses.

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