Korea faces setbacks in securing COVID-19 vaccines, achieving herd immunity by Nov.

By Jun Ji-hye

Korea is facing possible setbacks in carrying out its COVID-19 vaccination program as planned, due to unstable supply of vaccines amid growing competition between countries to secure the products.

India, a major supplier of the AstraZeneca vaccine, has decided to curtail exports of the vaccines to meet domestic demand as infections have been rising in the country, triggering difficulties for many other nations in securing vaccines, according to Reuters.

In addition, Novavax has also reportedly delayed the signing of a contract with the European Union to supply its vaccines, citing a lack of some raw materials.

Health authorities here are paying keen attention to the possibility that these situations could exert an adverse influence on the country's vaccination program, which began on Feb. 26 with an aim of administering vaccines to 12 million people by the first half of the year and having almost all of the population vaccinated by September to achieve herd immunity by November.

Bad news has been already reported here as the government said Tuesday that the planned delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines via COVAX Facility, the World Health Organization-led global vaccine distribution project, has been pushed back to the third week of April.

The AstraZeneca vaccines for 345,000 people were originally scheduled to depart from the Netherlands Wednesday, but the plan has been postponed due to a delay by the manufacturer, according to Korean authorities.

In addition, the amount of the delivery has been reduced to shots for 216,000 people.

“The postponement has been caused by the delay in the supply schedule of the Serum Institute of India that had been set for low-income countries,” a government official in charge of the vaccination program said. “We are continuing to carry out consultation with COVAX Facility.”

In preparation for possible shortages of AstraZeneca vaccines, the government said it is considering extending the gap between the first and second doses to 12 weeks from the current 10 weeks, if necessary.

The supply of vaccines made by other pharmaceutical companies also appears to face uncertainty.

Authorities have said the country would be able to receive Pfizer vaccines for 500,000 people in April and for 875,000 people in May, but have yet to clarify the schedule of shipments of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, Moderna and Novavax vaccines.

Korea lagging behind in vaccinations

Adding to concerns is that the speed of inoculations here appears to be slower, compared to some other countries.

Korea has administered vaccines to about 1.6 percent of its population since the vaccination program began on Feb. 26.

The inoculation rate at the United Kingdom, which was the first in the world to begin COVID-19 vaccinations on Dec. 8, was tallied at 43.9 percent as of March 25. The number of daily COVID-19 cases in that country was over 50,000 earlier this year, but has been reduced to below 5,000 in recent days.

The U.S.' vaccination rate stood at 26.8 percent as of March 26, with the daily cases decreasing from the 300,000 range in early January to 47,464 Monday.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said during a briefing, Monday, “The government is giving full efforts to consult with pharmaceutical companies and mobilizing diplomatic prowess to secure enough vaccines.”