SEOUL, South Korea (PA) – South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency has allowed health care workers to squeeze extra doses of coronavirus vaccine bottles developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
Saturday’s decision came after some health workers administering AstraZeneca shots reported to authorities that they saw additional doses left in the bottles that were each used for 10 injections.
KDCA official Jeong Gyeong-shil said skilled workers may be able to squeeze one or two extra doses out of each vial if they use low-volume syringes designed to reduce the waste of medicines and vaccines.
However, she said the KDCA does not allow health workers to combine the remaining vaccines into different bottles to create more doses.
KDCA had previously authorized 10 injections for each AstraZeneca vial and six for each Pfizer vial.
South Korea, which launched its public vaccination campaign on Friday, administers AstraZeneca gunfire to residents and workers in long-term care facilities, and Pfizer to front-line medical workers.
South Korea reported another 405 cases of coronavirus on Saturday.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– More than 500,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday after a two-day delay due to export procedures, providing a second inoculation option for the city. Pfizer-BioNTech images will be provided to approximately 2.4 million eligible residents in priority groups, such as those aged 60 and over and health workers. About 70,000 people who signed up for the vaccination program, which began on Friday, will receive photos developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac. Sinovac vaccines were the first to arrive last week. Registration details for those wishing to receive Pfizer-BioNTech photos have not yet been announced. Hong Kong has entered into agreements for a total of 22.5 million doses, with 7.5 million each from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Fosun Pharma, which deliver Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The government has so far approved Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
—- New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, is back in a seven-day blockade after an unexplained new coronavirus case was found. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement on Saturday night, after an urgent meeting with top parliamentarians in the cabinet. She said the blockade would take effect on Sunday morning. Auckland was placed in a three-day blockade earlier this month after new cases of the more contagious variant first found in the UK were found. New Zealand has pursued a strategy to eliminate zero tolerance to the virus and has successfully eliminated the spread of the community before the latest cases are found this month. Ardern said the latest patient had shown symptoms since the beginning of the week and could have infected others. The rest of New Zealand will also have increased restrictions.
– The Sri Lankan Ministry of Health has decided to vaccinate everyone aged 30 and over in high-risk areas of the capital Colombo and in the growing suburbs of COVID-19. There have been 466 new cases in the last 24 hours. Sri Lanka began the inoculation attempt in January, starting with health workers. To date, more than 406,000 people have been shot.