Government to Review Readjusting the Time Between First and Second Doses Following Supply of Moderna Vaccine

[경향신문]

Reuters-Yonhap News

The government decided to consider readjusting the time between the first and second vaccine shots after it confirmed that Moderna, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, would supply 7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this month.

On August 23, when the press asked the COVID-19 vaccination response team on possible adjustments to the time between the first and second Moderna vaccine shots, authorities said, “We will comprehensively review any adjustments to the time between the two doses along with our vaccine rollout plan for September and October.” Previously on August 6, when Moderna notified the government that the company could only deliver less than half of the 8.5 million doses scheduled to arrive in August due to problems in its laboratory, the government temporarily extended the time period between the first and second shots for messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines from four to six weeks on August 9. The people affected by the change were those scheduled to receive their second vaccine doses on August 16 and after, and the decision was valid for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

The government began discussing readjusting the time between the two vaccine shots after Moderna notified the government the previous day that they would deliver more vaccines than they had previously stated. When asked whether the vaccination of people ages 18-49, scheduled to begin on August 26, could start earlier due to the supply of the Moderna vaccine, authorities said, “Vaccination will proceed according to prior reservations made based on the wishes of the individuals, so even if the vaccine supply increases, it is difficult to predict how much of the vaccination will be brought forward collectively.” The team went on to say, “We will encourage more people to reserve their vaccine shots and review the time for vaccination of age groups yet to be vaccinated after reviewing the vaccine rollout.”