Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo says the amount of COVID-19 vaccine candidates global pharmaceutical firms are currently willing to offer South Korea is enough to administer to over 30 million people. 

Park made the disclosure during a meeting of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee on Tuesday in response to People Power Party Representative Kim Mi-ae, who urged the government to swiftly secure coronavirus vaccines. 

The minister said the government is contacting with each company and negotiating over quantities and prices, aiming for “reasonable” deals. 

He said Pfizer and Moderna, which announced a whopping 90 percent or higher efficacy of their vaccine candidates recently, are also active in reaching a deal with South Korea, while the domestic production base for AstraZeneca will make it easy for the country to secure prospective vaccines from it as well. 

Earlier in the day, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) deputy director Kwon Jun-wook revealed South Korea is currently negotiating to buy five COVID-19 vaccine products that have entered phase-three trials.