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| A health worker prepares a dose of Chinese-made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Belgrade Fair, Serbia, Feb. 4. AFP-Yonhap |
By Lee Hyo-jin
The Chinese Embassy in Korea said its government is seeking to provide its own developed coronavirus vaccines for Chinese nationals here.
In a recent interview with The Korea Times, Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming stated, "We are consulting with the South Korean government over whether to provide vaccines developed in China for the 1 million Chinese citizens living here."
But the ambassador did not specify which firm's vaccines the country is planning to administer and how the distribution process would take place.
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The two frontrunner COVID-19 vaccines developed in China are CoronaVac developed by Sinovac Biotech, and Sinopharm created by the state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group. Both shots are two-dose inactivated vaccines.
The Chinese health authorities gave approval for the general use of CoronaVac, Feb. 6, expanding its use to the public as it had been approved in July only for emergency use to high-risk groups such as medical workers.
Sinopharm had won approval for general public vaccinations last December, after it was reported to be 79 percent effective. It has also been approved in several countries including Bahrain and Serbia.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has not responded to The Korea Times' request for detailed information about the discussions between the two countries on inoculating Chinese nationals with vaccines from China.
The health authorities had stated earlier that foreign residents here will also be included in the country's free vaccination plan, and they will be administered the vaccine on the same standards applied to Korean nationals.
But the vaccines developed in China are currently not included in the list that Korea is planning to administer to the public. Other than the doses secured through the COVAX facility, a global initiative for vaccine development and distribution, the country has separately secured vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.
The government plans to roll out the vaccinations later this month starting with Pfizer's shots secured through COVAX, with 117,000 doses available for around 60,000 people. The first batch is set to arrive after mid-February.
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