Only 3 People Received First Vaccine Dose Yesterday... Authorities Report "893,000 Doses in Stock" (Update)

"Currently Assessing Reservations and Vaccine Supplies by Region"

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

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] As of midnight on the 10th, there were only 3 new first-dose COVID-19 vaccinations administered in one day. Even considering that the number of vaccinations typically decreases over the weekend, this is a poor performance. Amid growing concerns that a vaccine drought may be becoming a reality, authorities clarified, stating, "Currently, there is an inventory of about 890,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines remaining."

Jung Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said at the regular briefing of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on the 10th, "Currently, vaccination centers are making decisions based on reservation volumes and vaccine supplies by region, so the vaccination performance last Sunday was lower than the previous week and weekdays."

Director Jung added, "Looking at the remaining vaccine stock, there are about 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca (AZ) and about 650,000 doses of Pfizer available," and stated, "If the supply of vaccination doses increases, weekend and Sunday vaccinations are also expected to increase accordingly."

Previously, the government applied a method to accelerate vaccinations by advancing the second dose of vaccines to be used as the first dose. Because of this, vaccine supply imbalances have recently occurred at vaccination sites. However, since both AZ and Pfizer vaccines will be supplied sequentially starting this week, authorities consider this phenomenon temporary.

Director Jung explained, "For the AZ vaccine, a supply schedule of 7.23 million doses has been confirmed from the 14th through the first week of June, with the doses distributed over several shipments, and the first batch is scheduled to be supplied on the 14th," adding, "For the Pfizer vaccine, 5 million doses for May and June are scheduled to arrive every Wednesday, and doses will also arrive this Wednesday."

She emphasized, "The planned quantities of AZ and Pfizer vaccines for May and June are confirmed to be supplied as scheduled and are currently underway."