First shipment of COVID-19 vaccine arrives for US troops in S. Korea

The first shipment of US biotech company Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for American troops arrived in South Korea on Friday. It is the first coronavirus vaccine that has been brought into the country.

A cargo plane of US delivery company FedEx Corp. carrying the vaccine landed at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, from Memphis at around 12:54 p.m., according to the airport authority.

The shipment, believed to be 1,000 doses of the vaccine, was being transported to Allgood Army Community Hospital inside Camp Humphreys, the US military headquarters located about 70 kilometers south of Seoul.

Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of US Forces Korea, said Wednesday that his command will begin to receive and administer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine "over the next few days," and the initial inoculations will go to front-line health care workers and first responders.

The US Department of Defense said earlier that Allgood Army Community Hospital in South Korea will be one of four sites outside the continental US that will receive the initial vaccine.

The US stations some 28,000 troops in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)