South Korea plans to inject 100 billion won into efforts to secure treatments and develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

The pan-governmental task force for the development of COVID-19 medicine and vaccines announced the move during its third meeting on Wednesday.

Under the plan, the government will try to secure provisional treatments as early as the end of this year and develop a vaccine by next year. 

Among the provisional treatments the country is currently considering is a therapy that uses blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 to treat patients still fighting the virus.

In line with this, the government has been collecting blood samples from fully recovered patients in several areas including Daegu, once the epicenter of the outbreak in the country.