South Korea began distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday before kicking off a nationwide COVID-19 inoculation program the next day.
  
Six trucks carrying the vaccines departed a logistics center in Icheon at around 5:30 a.m. Thursday for South and North Gyeongsang Province, escorted by police and military vehicles. 

About 50 trucks will transport vaccines for 347-thousand doses or 170-thousand people to health centers and geriatric hospitals across the nation on Thursday.  

Vaccines for a total of 785-thousand people will arrive at the logistics center by Sunday and will be transported to about 250 health centers and 16-hundred geriatric hospitals. 

Employees and patients under 65 at the facilities will be the first to receive the AstraZeneca vaccines, manufactured by South Korean vaccine producer SK Bioscience in Andong.