"The government has been working to purchase an
additional quantity of vaccines of another platform and has seen substantial
progress," Chung said during an interagency meeting on the COVID-19
response held at the government complex in Sejong, 120 kilometers south of
Seoul.
Chung said the government will make an announcement when the
deal is finalized.
According to authorities, the country has secured
coronavirus vaccine doses for 56 million from four pharmaceutical companies and
the World Health Organization's global vaccine project, known as COVAX.
The secured quantity as of now is more than enough to cover
the country's population of 52 million. President Moon Jae-in announced Monday
that the government will provide all South Korean people with free-of-charge
COVID-19 vaccines in phases starting next month.
Despite the already secured quantity, authorities have been
moving to secure an additional volume of vaccines due to lingering
uncertainties, according to Chung.
"We don't know how long the immunity will last after
inoculation, and safety problems could occur. If we can't speed up
inoculations, we might have to outright discard the vaccines due to the short
expiration period," Chung said.
The prime minister also assessed that the pandemic has shown
signs of a slowdown since the weekend but cautioned against carelessness in
social distancing and antivirus measures.
"Whether we will reach clear stabilization (of the
virus situation) or again fall into resurgence due to disorderly carelessness
will be decided this week," he said.