Last checked at 
* Govt to buy 20 mln doses each from AstraZeneca, Pfizer,
Moderna
* Deals will provide vaccines for 44 mln people next year
* 594 new coronavirus cases reported overnight
* Health system faces collapse on current trends - vice
minister
(Adds health ministry saying vaccinations may begin in H1 2021,
paragraph 8)
By Hyonhee Shin and Sangmi Cha
SEOUL, Dec 8 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Tuesday it had
signed deals to provide coronavirus vaccines for 44 million
people next year but it would not hurry inoculation to allow
more time to observe potential side effects.
Its cautious approach comes as the country of almost 52
million people battles surging COVID-19 infections that health
authorities say threaten to overwhelm the medical system.
Other countries are moving ahead to grant emergency use
approval for the vaccines in a bid to contain virus
transmission. Britain began rolling out Pfizer's COVID-19
vaccine on Tuesday, and the United States and India have
launched regulatory reviews on some vaccine candidates.
The South Korean government has arranged to buy 20 million
doses each from AstraZeneca Plc, Pfizer Inc, and
Moderna Inc, and another 4 million doses from Johnson &
Johnson's Janssen, enough to cover up to 34 million
people, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing.
Additional doses for 10 million people would be procured
through the World Health Organization's global vaccine project,
known as COVAX, he added.
Despite the current surge in cases, South Korea's relative
success in tamping down previous waves meant the government did
not need to rush a vaccine, Park said.
"We don't see the need to hurriedly begin vaccination
without ensuring that the vaccines' risks have been verified,"
he said.
Shipments would begin no later than March, and vaccinations
may start in the first half of next year depending on factors
such as observations in other countries about their safety, the
spread of COVID-19 and public demand, the health ministry said.
"We had initially planned to secure vaccines for 30 million
people but decided to purchase more, as there is uncertainty
over the success of the vaccine candidates and the competition
is intense among countries for early purchases," Park said.
The government allocated an additional 1.3 trillion won
($1.2 billion) to next year’s budget for vaccines.
The first vaccines would likely go to medical workers,
elderly and medically vulnerable people, and social workers.
The government will seek to set up new storage to ensure the
vaccines are kept at the right temperatures, with the Pfizer
product required to be refrigerated at minus 70 Celsius degrees
(minus 94 Fahrenheit degrees).
WAVE OF INFECTIONS
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 594
new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Monday, bringing the
country's total to 38,755, with 552 deaths.
South Korea's previous two waves of infections were largely
focused around a handful of facilities or events, while the new
surge is being driven by smaller, harder-to-trace clusters in
and around the densely populated capital city of Seoul.
Vice Health Minister Kang Do-tae said the government had
been unable to trace the origin of 26% of all cases.
"If social distancing is not implemented properly, outbreaks
in the greater Seoul area would lead to greater transmissions
nationwide," Kang told a meeting of health officials according
to a transcript from the health ministry.
Health authorities predicted daily cases would hover between
550 and 750 this week, and could rise as high as 900 next week.
If such predictions are accurate, Kang said the country's
health system may collapse.
"There could be a dangerous situation where it becomes
difficult not only to treat COVID-19 patients but also to
provide essential medical services," he said.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Sangmi Cha, and Josh Smith; Writing
by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by
Stephen Coates, Michael Perry and Philippa Fletcher)
