Last checked at 
(Recasts with Pfizer vaccine deal)
By Sangmi Cha
SEOUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) - South Korea on Friday signed a
deal to buy 30 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19
vaccine for 2022, and the government urged people to cut holiday
travel amid a worsening fourth wave of infections and a slow
inoculation campaign.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum asked companies to be flexible
about allowing people to work from home and urged those
returning from holiday to get tested, especially before clocking
in for work.
The government's efforts to curb fresh cases have been
stymied by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant,
which has made contact tracing hard in the peak summer travel
season. Supply bottlenecks at vaccine maker Moderna
have added to its problems.
South Korea has secured a total of 193 million doses of
vaccines, including from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca,
Johnson & Johnson and Novavax. It has fully
vaccinated 17.4% of its 52 million population.
Under an existing contract with Pfizer for 66 million doses
this year, the country has received 17.88 million.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Director
Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing on Friday that the doses under
the new Pfizer contract would start to arrive in the first
quarter of 2022, and South Korea had the option to buy another
30 million doses.
Separately, on Friday morning, a government delegation left
for Boston for talks with Moderna over the U.S. vaccine maker's
repeated shipment delays, health ministry official Son Young-rae
told a briefing.
Moderna told Seoul on Monday it would only be able to
deliver less than half the 8.5 million doses it was due to ship
this month. The country has a contract for 40 million doses from
Moderna, and has received around 2.5 million so far.
The KDCA reported 1,990 new COVID-19 infections for
Thursday, after a record daily count of 2,223 on Wednesday https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-daily-covid-19-cases-hit-record-surpassing-2200-health-minister-2021-08-10.
Total cases stand at 220,182, with 2,144 deaths, and the
government has said the current wave of infections has not
peaked yet.
Kim said the government would secure at least 5% of hospital
beds for serious COVID-19 cases in 26 general hospitals in the
capital Seoul and surrounding areas.
"There have been many workplace clusters recently," Kim told
a televised speech. "Please make sure the employees returning to
work to check for symptoms like fever."
Under the current distancing rules, employers are advised to
increase flexible staffing, with 30% of staff working remotely https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-raise-covid-19-curbs-highest-level-seoul-says-pm-2021-07-08.
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Mark
Potter)
