<Anchor>



Less than half of the 8.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which were scheduled to enter Korea by the end of this month, failed to arrive. The setback came ten days after the government announced that all quarterly vaccines would be introduced on time. As an urgent matter, the government has decided to increase the interval between the first and second doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from the current 4 weeks to 6 weeks.



First news, this is reporter Park Soo-jin.



<Reporter> When the



supply of Moderna vaccine was delayed at the end of last month due to setbacks, the government was confident like this.



[Kim Bu-gyeom/Prime Minister (July 30): So far, there has been no case where the quarterly vaccine volume that the government reported to the people was not introduced in time. On August 6th or 7th, 1.3 million doses of Moderna vaccine will be supplied to Korea. Separately, discussions have been concluded to ensure that 8.5 million doses of the vaccine will be introduced in time during August.]



1.3 million doses arrived as scheduled, but The 8.5 million episodes didn't even come close to half.



The production-related issues that Moderna has revealed are still unresolved, and the government has not been able to ascertain the exact reason.



[Kwon Deok-cheol/Minister of Health and Welfare: We have informed us that less than half of 8.5 million doses of vaccine will be supplied due to laboratory problems related to vaccine production.] It



is not known how much 'less than half' is, but at least 4.25 million doses Less expected to come.



So, the government increased the interval between the two mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, from four weeks to six weeks.




Because we have to fill the moderna gap with Pfizer.



It has a proviso that it is temporary until next month.



The 6-week interval will be applied from the second vaccination on the 16th, and it is mainly applicable to the general public in their 50s and under 40s.



In elementary and middle schools, some faculty members increased from 3 weeks to 5 weeks.



3 weeks for high school students and faculty members, and 4 weeks for other college students, the existing gap will be maintained.



The government said that the first vaccination and vaccination reservations in progress this month will proceed as planned.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Won-yang, CG: Uhm So-min)