S. Korea to donate US$10 mln to support coronavirus vaccine supplies to developing countries

SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea decided to donate US$10 million to a multilateral platform designed to fund coronavirus vaccine distributions to developing countries, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. The money will be provided to the COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) to procure vaccines through pre-purchase contracts with manufacturers and distribute them to the relatively more vulnerable regions, the ministry said in a release. The COVAX AMC is run by the Gavi vaccine alliance, an international public-private partnership formed to secure affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. One of its key goals is to deliver 2 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by 2021. South Korea is pushing to secure enough coronavirus vaccines to be administered to 30 million people, or 60 percent of the country's population, and plans to secure 20 percent of the vaccines needed through participation in the COVAX alliance. elly@yna.co.kr (END)