Jeonbuk-do Governor Song Ha-jin is vaccinating the Corona 19 AstraZeneca vaccine at the Jeonju Health Center in Jeonbuk on the 6th. Provided by Jeonbuk Photo Reporters
The number of people vaccinated against the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in Korea exceeded 1 million in 39 days. The speed is too slow considering the goal of achieving’collective immunity’ in November after vaccinating 12 million people by the end of June and 35 million by the end of September.
According to the Central Defense Countermeasure Headquarters (Bangdaebon), the number of people vaccinated for Corona 19 as of 12 o’clock on the 6th is 101,019. Even after the vaccination started on February 26, the number of people who received the first vaccination for 39 days is 1.9% of the total population.
Compared to major overseas countries, the domestic vaccination rate is considerably slower. Israel, where vaccinations are rapidly progressing, exceeded 1 million within two weeks of vaccination, and 52% (4816,000) of the population as of the previous day completed vaccination. In the UK, after more than one million people in one week, about half of the population completed more than one vaccination. The United States currently has 3 million vaccines per day, and the cumulative number of vaccinations has exceeded 100 million.
It was also foreseen that vaccination was slow. “Unlike other countries, unlike other countries, we tried to rely only on the domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccine, and it was difficult to start full-fledged vaccination in the first half” “The government is making efforts to advance the schedule as much as possible, but there is a limit.”
The problem is that the feasibility of even the already established vaccine introduction plan is becoming unclear. The NovaVax vaccine, which is scheduled to be introduced in the country in the second quarter, has difficulties in supply and demand of raw materials, and has postponed the signing of a supply contract with the European Union (EU). Janssen and Modena have not disclosed specific schedules and quantities until the second quarter began.
For this reason, there is a growing concern that it will not be easy for the government to achieve its goals. The quarantine authorities planned to vaccinate 23% of the total population, 12 million people by the first half of the year, and 35 million people, 70% of the population, by the end of September. One million people were vaccinated in 39 days, and to achieve this plan, 10 million people would have to be vaccinated in the remaining 85 days in the first half.
As the vaccine supply crisis deepened, the quarantine authorities noted that all alternatives, including export restrictions, could be reviewed. At a regular briefing on this day, Jung Yu-jin, head of the vaccine introduction team of the Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team, said,’If the vaccine is not supplied at the time of the second vaccination 12 weeks after the first vaccination of the AstraZeneca vaccine, SK Bioscience will export the quantity being produced. When asked if it can be restricted, he replied, “We are reviewing all possible alternatives to ensure that the vaccine is properly introduced early.”
Yu Hwan-gu reporter [email protected]
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