Pre-Booking for Vaccination Starts Today for Ages 65-69... Additional Vaccine Supply This Week

Online and Call Center Reservations Available... Proxy Reservations for Children Allowed
Additional AZ and Pfizer Vaccine Supplies to Arrive Next Week

On the morning of the 2nd, a medical staff member at Mapo-gu Public Health Center in Seoul is busy filling a syringe with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine ahead of vaccination for the head of a health and medical organization. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Starting today (the 10th), advance reservations for AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccinations will begin for those aged 65 to 69 (born 1952?1956). The government plans to accelerate vaccinations for the elderly to achieve the goal of '13 million first doses' in the first half of the year.

According to the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team, the government will accept advance vaccination reservations for those aged 65 to 59 from today until the 3rd of next month. The target population is estimated to be a total of 2,838,000 people. From the 13th, reservations will also begin for 4,003,000 people aged 60 to 64 (born 1957?1961). Since the 6th, reservations for vaccinations have been underway for about 2.13 million people aged 70 to 74 (born 1947?1951) and patients with chronic severe respiratory diseases. All of these groups will receive the AZ vaccine.

Vaccinations will be carried out at about 12,000 designated medical institutions nationwide, including hospitals and clinics. Through the online COVID-19 vaccination reservation site and call centers, individuals can select their preferred date and location, and it is possible to choose any medical institution regardless of their registered address. Children of elderly vaccination candidates can also make reservations on their behalf.

Actual vaccinations will be conducted sequentially from the end of this month to mid-next month. Elderly people aged 65 to 74 and those with chronic severe respiratory diseases will begin vaccinations from the 27th, while those aged 60 to 64 will start from the 7th of next month.

Additionally, both the AZ and Pfizer vaccines currently being administered domestically will receive additional supplies this week. As a result, the temporary 'vaccine supply imbalance' caused by focusing on first-dose vaccinations is expected to ease somewhat. However, the normalization of new first-dose vaccinations is expected to occur in the mid to late part of this month.

As of the previous day, the remaining vaccine stock in the country is approximately 242,000 doses of AZ and 654,000 doses of Pfizer, totaling about 896,000 doses. Even considering that the domestic low dead space (LDS) syringes can save about 10% of the vaccine, the remaining amount is only enough for about 1 million people to receive a single dose.

Currently, Pfizer vaccines are arriving domestically in small quantities every Wednesday. An additional 1,314,000 doses are scheduled to be introduced within this month, but the exact weekly supply amount has not been confirmed. AZ vaccines will also be sequentially supplied with 7.23 million doses from the 14th of this month through the first week of next month.