S. Korean gov’t says no concerns over distribution of AstraZeneca vaccine Updated: 2020-12-09 17:01:42 KST

The South Korean health authorities said in their briefing Wednesday that distributing the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca will not be a major hurdle when the time comes.
There have been reports that manufacturing of the vaccine in the UK could face delays.
But the South Korean officials said that will not be the case here because the AstraZeneca vaccine will be produced in South Korea, and those are the doses that will be distributed first.
The South Korean firm SK Bioscience agreed in July to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine once it’s ready.
There are still questions about the vaccine, however, possibly suggesting the need for more trials.
The vaccine was shown to be 70 percent effective overall.
But among some patients in the third phase of trials it was 90 percent effective.
This is because they were mistakenly given half a dose followed by a full dose, while efficacy was lower among other patients was who got two full doses.
In the meantime, Seoul’s health ministry has announced deals with four drugmakers to secure 64 million doses, which is enough for 34 million people.
20 million doses will be of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be ready as soon as February.
South Korea has not announced, however, when the actual vaccinations will start.
Choi Won-jong, Arirang News.