The government said on Friday that it is talking with foreign developers of antiviral pills so they will be administered to local COVID-19 patients from as early as late January. 

Go Jae-yeong, a spokesperson for the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA), said at a briefing that efforts and talks are underway to move up the date to bring the first batch of COVID-19 oral drugs from the initially planned February. 

He said the detailed timeline will be announced when the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety confirms schedules regarding possible emergence use authorization of those pills. 

South Korea earlier said it is seeking to secure pills enough to treat 404-thousand people but according to authorities, at least 542-thousand pills have already been secured, including around 300-thousand Paxlovid pills from Pfizer. 

The other 242-thousand pills are produced by rival U.S. company Merck & Co.