Israel is sending 700,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to South Korea in exchange for a future shipment of vaccines from South Korea to Israel.
Under the deal, Israel is to transfer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to South Korea in an effort to inoculate more of the Asian nation’s citizens this month. South Korea would then send the same number of doses to Israel as early as September, officials said.
“This is a win-win deal,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The agreement would “reduce the holes” in the vaccine’s availability, he said.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jung Eun-kyeong, South Korea’s top infectious disease expert, confirmed the deal.
She said the South Korean government would continue to pursue swap deals with other nations.
“We are expecting to have a sufficient number of vaccines during the fourth quarter while we proceed with our vaccination campaign,” Jung said.
Both nations are reporting a surge in new COVID-19 infections, with South Korea topping 700 new cases of COVID-19 for the fourth straight day yesterday. Israel reported the most new infections in three months, with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 driving the trend.
Both governments are considering ways to curb the spread of the virus.
South Korea has so far administered first doses to 30 percent of its population. Israel has fully vaccinated nearly 5.3 million of its population of 9.3 million.
Bennett said the agreement, which he personally negotiated with Pfizer chief executive Albert Burla, is the first of its kind between Israel and another nation.
The Israeli vaccines still need to be tested after their arrival in South Korea, he added.
The deal comes a few weeks after the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy over areas of the occupied West Bank, called off a deal to receive 1 million doses of vaccine from Israel.
The Palestinians said that the vaccines were too close to expiring and did not meet their standards.
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