COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea

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COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea has been a nationwide effort to immunize people against the virus. The program is run by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), which posted daily updates. In 2021, vaccine supplies were tight and the rollout slowed for a while.

Key milestones
- Feb 10, 2021: South Korea approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine for all adults, with two shots. Caution was advised for people over 65 due to limited data.
- Apr 14, 2021: An additional 250,000 Pfizer doses arrived.
- Jun 3, 2021: The United States donated 1 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines to South Korea (initially 550,000 for Korean troops in close contact with U.S. forces).
- Jul 6, 2021: South Korea borrowed 700,000 expiring Pfizer doses from Israel and planned to return the same amount later that year.
- Jul 5, 2021: Vaccination pace slowed due to shortages, with about 1.8 million doses remaining, including 1.4 million Pfizer doses; the rate stayed around 29% for more than two weeks.
- Nov 29, 2021: President Moon Jae-in urged rapid booster shots as severe cases rose after easing antivirus rules.
- Aug 19, 2021: Romania donated 450,000 expiring Moderna vaccines to South Korea.
- AstraZeneca and SK Bioscience: AZD1222 was to be manufactured in Korea by SK Bioscience for local and global use.
- WHO emergency use: AstraZeneca’s vaccine (produced by AstraZeneca and SK Bioscience) received emergency use approval.
- Sputnik V: Korus Pharm formed a consortium to produce Russia’s Sputnik V in Korea, with doses intended for export (not for domestic use).
- Novavax: NVX-CoV2373 technology licensed to SK Bioscience to manufacture up to about 40 million doses.
- Nov 9, 2023: SK Bioscience submitted an investigational new drug application for GBP510, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, to Korea’s MFDS for a Phase III trial in about 4,000 people.