S. Korea to stack up 7.23m COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk groups this winter

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday said it would secure some 7.23 million doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines for winter this year for individuals at a higher risk of developing the illness as variants of the virus continue to pose a risk to public health.

Additionally, the government has decided to convert a portion of homegrown COVID-19 vaccines into NovaVax’s synthetic antigen vaccine, totaling between 300,000 to 500,000 doses. The synthetic antigen vaccine has shown a strong immune response to variants, according to the agency.

The vaccination will be rolled out for high-risk groups, including senior citizens aged 65 and older, under the government’s COVID-19 winter vaccination plan set for the latter half of the year. The specifics of the program will be announced at a later time.

The plan was determined based on the expected vaccination rate, which the KDCA estimated to be about 50 percent of the population belonging to the high-risk group, or approximately 6.33 million people. The plan was also deliberated on by the Korea Expert Committee on Immunization Practices and the Infectious Disease Control Committee.

The KDCA explained that the preparations are part of its efforts to prevent high-risk groups from COVID-19 variants.

“(The government) will continue to team up with pharmaceutical companies and relevant ministries to supply the vaccines for the COVID-19 vaccination period this winter,” the KDCA said.