COVAX offers 4.7 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to North Korea

Latest offer brings total doses allocated to DPRK to 6.83 million, though vaccine deliveries have yet to begin

COVAX has allocated 4.73 million more AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccines for North Korea, the global vaccine alliance Gavi confirmed to NK News on Tuesday. 

With around 2.1 million AZ vaccines previously assigned, COVAX has now pledged a total of around 6.83 million doses for North Korea — but none have been delivered so far. 

“Gavi and COVAX are continuing the dialogue with DPRK to operationalize COVAX support,” a Gavi spokesperson told NK News. COVAX is short for COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility and is jointly led by the World Health Organization, U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Gavi.

North Korea’s continued border controls and the extended delay in vaccine delivery paints a blurry picture of when the doses can start going into the country, but international agencies appear to believe North Korea is still interested in taking them in.

In its 12th round of vaccine allocation decisions on Tuesday, COVAX said it has excluded countries “not ready to receive and use the vaccine” by the end of this year from the list of eligible participants, based on “information received from the country itself and from country readiness and country engagement teams.”

COVAX has only offered AZ vaccines to North Korea from an allocation of around 20 million doses manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. The country did not receive an offer of any Moderna vaccines from an allotment of around 23 million doses.

Last week, COVAX said countries that have recently communicated their intent to refuse vaccines or “who have refused the vaccine in the past round” were also excluded from eligibility.

Earlier this year, Pyongyang refused a COVAX offer of 3 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, stating that those doses “may be relocated to severely affected countries.”

Meanwhile, North Korean state media in recent days has warned citizens of the dangers of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreading around the world. The WHO designated Omicron, or “B.1.1.529,” as a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26. 

Korean Central Television (KCTV) has reported that the variant is capable of evading immune responses produced by vaccines in multiple programs since Nov. 27, and the party-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun has reported on Omicron infection cases in European countries like the U.K., as well as in Africa and Oceania. 

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Nov. 29 also claimed that the variant is “five times stronger than delta virus,” stressing that the country’s health authorities are “putting all efforts to thoroughly” ensure a “perfect state emergency epidemic prevention system.”