ANKARA 

South Korea on Friday said the country will sign contracts with two pharmaceutical companies later this month to acquire COVID-19 vaccines as virus cases spike in the country, according to local media.

The country’s Health Ministry will push to sign COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts with Johnson & Johnson's Janssenm and Pfizer, according to Yonhap news agency.

The country also aims to sign another deal with Moderna next month.

"We will sign a contract with Janssen as early as next week and will be able to strike a deal with Pfizer within this year," the agency quoted Im In-taek, a ministry official in charge of vaccine purchase, as saying.

"Talks have been under way to secure vaccines via COVAX in the first quarter of 2021, and negotiations will continue through next week," he added.

Last week, the country’s Health Ministry said it has secured early access to the vaccines developed by four pharmaceutical companies and a global vaccine project for 44 million people, enough to cover 88% of the nation's population.

In October, South Korea made an 85 billion won ($77.6 million) advance payment to the World Health Organization's global vaccine project, known as COVAX.

According to the ministry, the country will purchase 20 million doses each from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna, which require two shots, and buy 4 million doses from Johnson and Johnson's Janssen, which requires one shot.

Like other countries, South Korea is also planning to vaccinate its front-line health workers and elderly people in first the phase.

"We will flexibly decide the vaccine schedule considering the amount of vaccines and domestic outbreak after carefully monitoring vaccination in other countries and potential side effects," the agency quoted Yang Dong-gyo, a senior Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) official, as saying. 

New COVID-19 cases

On Friday, South Korea reported over 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day as virus keeps spreading across the country.

With 1,062 new cases, the country’s total rose to 47,515, according to KDCA. During the past 24 hours, 11 more patients lost their lives, raising the total number of fatalities to 645.

On Wednesday, South Korea recorded 1,078 virus cases, the highest daily number since the beginning of the outbreak in the country.

Last week, the government toughened preventive measures, currently at Level 2.5, the second-highest under the five-tier virus restrictions, in the Seoul capital area.