[서울신문] Pfizer vaccination for 500,000 people from April… The key is to resolve the’supply and demand imbalance’ in the second quarter

Government secures 23 million additional vaccines

The number of vaccination plans for the second quarter is 9.37 million.
Only 500,000 Pfizers have confirmed the timing of vaccination.
Modena and Novabacks can’t even initiate a review
Concrete supply plan for 10 million Kovacs undecided

The government decided to vaccinate the Pfizer vaccine from April at the latest, advancing the introduction of 500,000 people. In addition, the authorities secured an additional 23 million NovaVax and Pfizer vaccines and supplied them from the second quarter. On the 15th, as the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delayed the vaccination of 370,000 elderly people in nursing homes and nursing hospitals to April-May, the second quarter, the possibility of a supply-demand imbalance was raised temporarily in the second quarter. see. However, it is unclear whether the vaccine supply crisis can be eliminated. Among those eligible for the second quarter, President Moon Jae-in, who is 65 years of age or older, is expected to receive vaccinations from May to June according to the priority of the elderly.

At a meeting of the Central Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters on the 16th, Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun said, “As uncertainties in the supply and demand of vaccines are growing in the first half, a certain amount (for 500,000 people) of Pfizer vaccines contracted to be supplied in the first half of the second half was advanced and introduced in the first half. “We have been discussing possible quantities (for 3 million people),” he said. “The introduction of 20 million Nova Vax has also been confirmed.” The amount of vaccines secured by the government increased from 56 million to 79 million. Of the 10 million Pfizer vaccines that were originally scheduled to be introduced in the third quarter, 500,000 pre-supplied vaccinations are planned to take place mainly in late March or April.

The key is whether the quantity can be secured as scheduled according to the vaccination schedule. As planned, 9 million people, including general seniors 65 years of age or older, users and workers of home-based facilities for the elderly, should receive the Corona 19 vaccine in the second quarter. Adding 370,000 residents and workers aged 65 or older in nursing hospitals and facilities, who were expected to be vaccinated in the first quarter, will increase the number of vaccinations in the second quarter to a total of 9.37 million. However, only 500,000 Pfizers are available for use in the second quarter of the volume for which vaccination is currently determined, and even this seems to be difficult for the elderly in nursing hospitals.

For the newly secured 3 million Pfizer and 20 million Novabacks, it is still unclear when and how much volume will be delivered in the second quarter. Pfizer has already begun the official approval review by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which oversees the vaccine approval review, and is expected to be completed before the end of March, but NovaVax has yet to take the first step toward the approval review. The introduction of 6 million and 20 million doses of Janssen and Modena vaccines, respectively, for which the supply contract was confirmed last year, will begin in the second quarter, but Janssen alone is undergoing a preliminary review, a process just before the official approval review, from December last year. The supply of 10 million AstraZeneca vaccines, which has been officially signed with the government, has only been confirmed on the 24th, but there is no plan for supply for the second quarter.

Regarding these concerns, Yangdonggyo’s Corona 19 Vaccination and Response Promotion Team’s Resource Management Team headed at a briefing on the day, saying, “It is stated in the contract that Pfizer will supply 3 million people in the second quarter, and Nova Vax also agreed to the initial supply period in the second quarter. It predicted that the supply will come true without a hitch.”

A detailed plan for 10 million Pfizer-AstraZeneca vaccines that are brought in through the multinational vaccine association’CoVax Facility’ is still undecided. First, only plans to supply about 60,000 Pfizer vaccines in late February to early March, and 1.3 million AstraZeneca vaccines within the first half were confirmed.

Meanwhile, the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to strengthen the quarantine of foreign visitors due to the epidemic of the Ebola virus in Africa.

Reporter Bumsoo Lee [email protected]