According to health authorities, South Korea is in talks with global drug companies including Pfizer Inc about the potential for coronavirus vaccines to supply 60% of its population this year.
As a result, the government has allocated 172 billion won to purchase 60 million early doses to curb the ongoing spread of the Covid-19 epidemic that has resulted in the fourth largest economic recession in Asia and improved the daily lives of its 52 million people.
It is common knowledge that this week, Pfizer says its experimental Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective.
Further, the country’s health authorities revealed that an agreement had been reached in their negotiations with several drug companies conducting Level 3 clinical trials for their vaccines, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novavax Inc.
In addition, the country's government has obtained about 20 million doses, enough for 10 million individuals, through the COVAX facility, an international Covid-19 vaccine allocation platform led by the World Health Organization. The remaining 40 million doses will be purchased from private companies.
In addition, they plan to hold their first meeting today with the newly formed expert advisory committee to discuss its vaccine acquisition plans including safety standards and distribution procedures.
For all intents and purposes, South Korea is one of the countries claiming to successfully control the spread of the pandemic, with aggressive testing and search strategies, but it continues to fight small groups of infected epidemics.
Most recently, South Korea reported a total of 143 cases of Covid-19 infection bringing the total number of infection cases to 27,942 with 487 deaths.
Following the process of getting the vaccine will take a long time, they still practice preventive measures such as social imprisonment and wearing face masks.
