AstraZeneca also supplied from February… Who will be vaccinated first-factkorea news

On the 28th, specific vaccination implementation plans, including priority vaccination targets, will be announced.
AstraZeneca vaccine struggles with prioritization due to lack of clinical data
In early February, the initial volume of Kobax was 50,000 people, weighing on priority vaccination of’medical staff’

It is expected that the first vaccine volume for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) will enter Korea early next month.

The government is at the stage of finalizing the division of duties by relevant ministries (Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Distribution and Administration, Ministry of Administration and Security for vaccination) and finalizing vaccination priorities. Specific measures for vaccination including this will be officially announced on the 28th.

According to the quarantine authorities on the 25th, out of the 56 million people the government has secured so far (76 million people including the planned contract amount), the first quantity to come in is’Covax Facility’, an international project for joint purchase and distribution of vaccines. This is the initial quantity of (COVAX facility).

The government has signed a contract to supply a total of 10 million vaccines from Kovacs, of which 50,000 are expected to arrive in early February.

The vaccines originally proposed by Kovacs are the products of three companies: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sanofi-GlaxoMiscline (GSK), and Pfizer vaccines are currently being actively reviewed.

If vaccination begins before the Lunar New Year holiday (2.11-14), the target is likely to be a medical staff at a hospital dedicated to infectious diseases.

This is because medical staff, who are always exposed to the risk of infection while caring for COVID-19 patients, are ranked as the first priority for vaccination.

In fact, even in the United States and other countries that have already started vaccination, there were many cases where the ‘1st inoculation’ was a medical staff.

Following KOVAX, AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be introduced in the domestic market sequentially.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety received an application for a vaccine item license from AstraZeneca on the 4th, and is currently reviewing non-clinical and clinical trial data. On the 31st, we plan to hold a meeting of the’Corona 19 Vaccine Safety and Effectiveness Verification Advisory Group’.

AstraZeneca vaccine, like COVEX, is scheduled to be supplied first.

The government previously announced that it plans to supply the quantity produced by SK Bioscience, a commissioned production facility of AstraZeneca, sequentially from February to March. It is reported that the first supply will be around 1 million out of the total 10 million.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is expected to be administered to high-risk groups such as the elderly in nursing homes.

The government has previously announced several times its policy to start vaccination for workers in high-risk medical institutions and elderly people living in nursing hospitals and facilities. It is estimated that about 560,000 elderly people live in group facilities such as nursing homes.

For some, the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine is for 1.5 million people. Of these, it is said that 750,000 will be vaccinated by elderly hospitalized patients in nursing hospitals and medical staff at high-risk medical institutions.

However, there is a possibility that elderly patients will be hit later due to the change in the order of vaccination targets.

Until now, the government has reviewed a total of nine armies, including the elderly 65 years of age or older, adults with chronic diseases, police, fire officials, and soldiers, as targets for recommended vaccination.

However, it is known that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be excluded from the top priority as it was pointed out that the results of vaccination for the elderly were limited.

Eun-mi Chun, a professor of respiratory medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, pointed out that “Pfizer, Modena vaccine has a lot of research on the elderly, but AstraZeneca vaccine does not have a’final report’ (final report) for the elderly.”

In particular, Professor Chun emphasized that “Asrazeneca vaccination has little (related information) except in the UK and there is not much (clinical) data on the elderly, so the government should clearly explain how to deal with it.”