Seoul to consider need for additional COVID vaccine procurement amid new strain worries

South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has said that the government would likely consider buying Russia’s Sputnik V and other coronavirus vaccines in a bid to curb the spread of new virus variants. KDCA head Jeong Eun-Kyeong said at a briefing that Seoul was also negotiating additional purchase of some 20 million doses of US-made Novavax vaccine. The country also hopes to receive a total of 106 million doses from various manufacturers enough to inoculate its 51.3 million people. 

Jeong said, “Regarding the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, given the uncertainty surrounding supply problems and modified virus strains, we plan to continue to consider the need for additional vaccine procurement... This means that we are considering all available vaccines as candidates”.

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'Reduced efficacy against African variant’ 

South Korea is considering to buy vaccines from different manufacturers after data emerged showing the AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been advised for deployment in South Korea by the national pharmaceutical panel, provided only minimal protection against the South African coronavirus strain. The two-dose regime of the vaccine did not show protection against mild to moderate COVID-19 infection caused by the South African variant, Financial Times reported citing authors of the randomised, double-blind study. In addendum, they also revealed that the efficacy of the vaccine against severe cases, hospitalisations and deaths were not yet determined.

Currently, only two vaccine manufacturers - Johnson and Johnson and Novavax - have confirmed that their shots were efficient against the South African variant. Pertaining to the same, Moderna asserted that it will test a booster shot and a reformulated vaccine to target the South African variant after studies showed its vaccine was significantly less effective. While Pfizer/ BioNTech have admitted that their vaccine was slightly less effective in a lab study using a pseudovirus with some mutations from the 501Y.V2 variant. However, study results are yet to be published.

Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout in South Korea is due to begin in February. According to PM Chung Sye-kyun, AstraZeneca shipments for 21.9 million people will arrive in the fist half of 2021. Currently, South Korea has over 81,000 confirmed COVID cases, with nearly 1,474 deaths. 

(With inputs from ANI) 

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