North Korea refuses Covax vaccine deliveries as scheme shrinks number of allocated jabs
North Korea has reportedly not accepted any Covid-19 vaccines from the global COVAX scheme, leaving millions of allocated vaccines to be re-distributed.
The worldwide vaccine sharing programme has dialled back the number of doses it had allotted to North Korea to help it meet international immunisation targets, Reuters first reported.
A little over 8.1m vaccines were set aside for North Korea last year, which has since dwindled to 1.5m this year, according to figures from UNICEF.
National immunisation has not formed part of North Korea’s strategy to tackle the virus.
Though it has been reported that some officials, namely those working in border control, may have been vaccinated.
The country has not officially confirmed a single Covid-19 infection and was one of the first countries to shutter its borders.
However, many doubt that the country has remained Covid-19 free.
North Korea’s parliament gave the green light to a more than 33 per cent lift to pandemic spending, state media reported on Tuesday.
“The emergency epidemic prevention work will be made the top priority of the state affairs and the epidemic prevention walls will be further intensified,” premier Kim Tok Hun said in a speech.