SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea will begin administering the first of 117,000 doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Feb. 27, a day after the country began its first vaccination with AstraZeneca products, the Prime Minister announced Sunday.
Plans call for about 10 million high-risk people, including health care workers and workers and some residents of supported care facilities and nursing homes, to be in place by July.
The first AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be released on Friday, with Pfizer images being used the next day, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said in statements quoted by Yonhap news agency.
“On February 26, 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines will reach the country and the vaccines will be given to medical staff treating coronavirus patients starting on February 27,” Chung told a government meeting, according to Yonhap.
Authorities have said they will not use the AstraZeneca vaccine on people age 65 and older until more efficacy data is available, returning an earlier decision.
In addition to AstraZeneca and Pfizer, South Korea has also reached agreements with Moderna, Novavax Inc, Johnson & Johnson, and the global COVAX vaccination scheme, to provide their vaccines.
Chung announced last week that South Korea had struck additional contracts with Novavax Inc for enough vaccines to cover 20 million people and with Pfizer to cover another 3 million, making the total supply enough to cover 79 million people, while South Korea has a population of 52 million.
The government says its goal is to reach herd protection by November, although top South Korean medical experts have said it will be impossible to meet a timetable.
Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 416 more COVID-19 cases since midnight Saturday, raising the number to 86,992.