Coronavirus: South Korea twice bought the vaccines it needs | the Chronicle

The government of South Korea has announced a new agreement with Pfizer to acquire 40 million vaccines against the coronavirus, bringing the doses purchased to date to 192 million in a country of around 52 million inhabitants.

In this way, the country would have already reserved enough doses to vaccinate 99 million people, according to data compiled by the press agency Bloomberg.

The Minister of Health, Kwon Deok Cheol, who twice met with local Pfizer officials this month, told media that “The additional contract will allow South Korea to receive coronavirus vaccines on a more stable basis,” according to the press agency Yonhap.

The Asian country has so far signed agreements with five pharmaceutical companies, which also include AstraZeneca, Moderna, Janssen and Novavax, the news agency said. Europa Press. In addition, you have access to the Covax mechanism, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The South Korean authorities launched the vaccination campaign at the end of February, but so far it has only administered 2.2 million doses, according to government data.

Authorities reported 785 new cases of coronavirus, which brings to 118,243 the positive results confirmed since the start of the pandemic.

At least 1,812 people have died, one more than last Friday, according to data from the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention.