North Korea has rejected around three million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), reported news agencies quoting Unicef. The secretive regime, which has not reported a single case of Covid-19, suggested that the vaccines should be given to severely affected countries, according to the UN agency that manages the supply of Covid-19 vaccines for lower-income countries under the COVAX scheme.
North Korea was the first country to impose strict nationwide lockdown and close its borders in January last year to stop the spread of coronavirus from neighbouring China where the virus first emerged. While the isolated country has not officially reported any Covid-19 case to the World Health Organization (WHO), analysts doubt the claim.
North Korea’s public health ministry “has communicated that the 2.97 million Sinovac doses being offered to DPR Korea by Covax may be relocated to severely affected countries in view of the limited global supply of Covid-19 vaccines and recurrent surge in some countries”, AFP quoted a spokesperson for Unicef as saying.
The public health ministry will continue to communicate with the COVAX facility to receive vaccines in the coming months, agencies reported quoting Unicef spokesperson.
In July, a South Korea think tank said that Pyongyang had also rejected shipments of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine over safety concerns. Several Western countries had temporarily halted administering AstraZeneca’s vaccine after cases of blood clotting were reported in some people. But most of them resumed their vaccination campaign after the WHO and European medical agency insisted that the benefits outweigh the risk.
Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), affiliated with South Korea’s spy agency, said in its report that Pyongyang was also not keen on Chinese vaccines due to concerns over their efficacy.
(With inputs from agencies)
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