◀ Anchor ▶
The Pfizer vaccine, which we also start vaccinating in the middle of this month, can be given by 5 people per bottle.
However, with this special syringe, one more person or up to 6 people can be inoculated.
The government decided to get enough of this special syringe to get more and faster.
Reporter Park Yoon-soo covered it.
◀ Report ▶
A syringe manufacturer in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province.
Syringes are made seamlessly between the busy machines.
This is a special syringe that will be used at the COVID-19 vaccination site this month, that is, the’minimum amount syringe’.
A regular syringe will discard 0.07 milliliters of vaccine left between the piston and needle after dosing.
However, the minimum remaining amount of vaccine is only one-third of the amount of vaccine remaining.
The space between the syringe body and the needle is minimized to save the amount of vaccine wasted.
In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, which is to be vaccinated first, 2.1 ml of vaccine is made per bottle after thawing and dilution. If a general syringe is used, up to 5 people can be inoculated, but using a special syringe reduces the discarded vaccine. Up to people can be vaccinated.
[김강립/식품의약품안전처장]
“We paid attention to this effectiveness, as we can inject more people with the same amount of vaccine.”
In the US, where vaccination was first started, many vaccines were discarded during the vaccination process due to lack of special syringes.
To prevent this problem in advance, the government signed a contract to purchase 40 million special syringes to be used by July with two domestic manufacturers.
[김강립/식품의약품안전처장]
“We are recruiting and identifying companies that can supply enough domestic demand and sharing information with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The government plans to expand the use of special syringes to other vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna as well as AstraZeneca.
This is Yoonsoo Park on MBC News.
(Video editing: Yurim Oh)
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