[백신의 반격] Global Corona 19 vaccination status… How far have you come to Korea

[사진=AP·연합뉴스]

Countries around the world are trying to fight back against Corona 19 by starting vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), but it is somewhat hindering the smooth progress. The vaccine is expected to be introduced in Korea from next month.

According to the world statistics website’Our World in Data’ on the 25th, the world population who received the Corona 19 vaccine as of the previous day reached 63.41 million. The country with the fastest vaccination is the United States. The number of people who received the Corona 19 vaccine in the U.S. reached 2,054 million the previous day.

The country with the fastest vaccination rate after the United States was China, with 15 million people hit by the 20th.

Among European countries, 1.34 million people were vaccinated in Italy and 1.01 million people in France as of the previous day. The UK is the fastest among European countries with 6.33 million vaccinations by the 22nd. Germany is the fastest after the UK, with 1.63 million hits on the same day.

However, the expansion of vaccination is not expected to be as smooth as the plan. Vaccine shortages are occurring everywhere.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he would complete the vaccination of 100 million people by the end of April, within 100 days of taking office. However, in New York, vaccination was stopped due to lack of vaccine supplies. As a result, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of a low-dose special syringe, increasing the dose per bottle of Pfizer vaccine from five to six. Pfizer vaccine is a quantitative dose of 5 doses per bottle, but it increases the speed of vaccination by squeezing an additional dose.

In the European Union (EU), the supply of vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer has been disrupted.

According to Reuters, an EU official who requested anonymity said that the supply of AstraZeneca vaccine in the first quarter would be 31 million doses, down 60% from expected. AstraZeneca plans to supply 80 million doses of vaccine to 27 countries in Europe by March.

This is because a fire at a consignment company in India, where AstraZeneca commissioned vaccine production, caused production disruption, and the vaccine had to be adjusted for mutant viruses originating in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.

EU member states have begun vaccinating the corona 19 jointly developed by Pfizer and Bioentech from the end of last month. However, the initial supply of the vaccine is also expected to decrease. Pfizer announced on the 15th that vaccine shipments in late January to early February will temporarily decrease due to the expansion of the plant in Belgium. The EU Commission has ordered a total of 600 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer.

In Korea, vaccination is expected to begin in earnest from next month.

The government signed a vaccine purchase contract with individual pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Janssen, Pfizer, and Modena, as well as the international project COVAX facility for joint vaccine purchase and distribution, securing a total of 56 million vaccines. It is known that the contract to introduce an additional 20 million doses of NovaVax vaccine has been almost completed.

Of these, it is predicted that the initial quantity of 50,000 people purchased through Kovacs will be the first to arrive early next month. It is said that the vaccine is being heavily reviewed by Pfizer products.

Accordingly, on the 28th, the government plans to finalize and announce a plan to implement vaccination through the’Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Group’, in which relevant ministries such as the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention participate. It informs in detail the current status of the introduction of the Corona 19 vaccine and the target, timing and method of vaccination.