UK to give 1 million Covid vaccine doses to South Korea in shot swap

Officials add the doses swapped with South Korea are not part of Britain’s commitment to send 100 million vaccines overseas.

A syringe is prepared with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at the Reading Area Community College in Reading (Photo | AP) 

LONDON: Britain’s government has announced plans to share more than a million doses of coronavirus vaccine with South Korea in a “vaccine swap.”

The U.K. plans to ship more than a million doses of its stockpile of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to South Korea in the coming weeks. South Korea is attempting to fully vaccinate 70% of its population by the end of October.

The Department of Health says the vaccine doses are not immediately required in the U.K. and won’t affect Britain’s program to roll out booster shots for parts of the population this fall and winter. South Korea will return the same number of doses to Britain by the end of the year.

Officials add the doses swapped with South Korea are not part of Britain’s commitment to send 100 million vaccines overseas.

Britain has donated 10.3 million vaccines to other nations, including 6.2 million through the vaccine-sharing facility COVAX. The rest were donated bilaterally to countries in need.