A health worker holds a bottle containing AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at a public health center in Seoul on May 3, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses, intended for free vaccinations for the public, have been scrapped after reaching their expiration date, data showed Monday.
According to a report from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) submitted to Rep. Jung Choun-sook of the Democratic Party, some 201.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines were imported between 2021 and late June of this year.
Among them, around 21.9 million doses were discarded, accounting for 10.9 percent of the total.
Sorted by manufacturer, the majority of all scrapped vaccines were 6.3 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 13.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine.
“The conditions of the contract, including the unit price of each vaccine, cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality agreements signed with the pharmaceutical companies,” the KDCA said.
After the inoculation rate peaked during the first and second rounds of vaccinations, demand for vaccination declined significantly following the spread of the omicron variant, which led to one-third of South Koreans contracting the disease.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
