South Korea has hinted that it might consider curbing exports of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine doses amid global supply shortages, as health experts warned the move would hurt the country’s reputation as a contract manufacturer. This came as it reported 668 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest number in three months, with continuing sporadic cluster infections prompting officials to express concerns over a new wave. The latest cases marked a sharp rise from 478 the previous day and was the largest since 674 daily infections on January 8, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country’s total number of cases now stands at 106,898. “We need to be more vigilant as the fourth wave of the pandemic approaches,” said Yoon Tae-ho, a senior official from the health ministry. Asia once led the coronavirus battle. Why is it behind on vaccines? Concerns have been growing about delayed shipments of vaccines as the United States, European countries and India take steps to strengthen control over vaccine exports to deal with domestic shortages. In response to questions from journalists on Tuesday, health officials did not rule out the possibility of restricting exports of AstraZeneca vaccines being produced in South Korea by SK Bioscience. “All options are on the table in order to secure vaccines properly,” said Jeong Yoo-jin, a senior KDCA official who is in charge of acquiring vaccines. “It’s hard to specify what we will do as we are still in the process of reviewing all options,” she said. But her remarks represented a departure from what she stated a week earlier, local news reports said. “Currently, we are not considering any vaccine export curbs. It is necessary for us to consider possible fallouts from the international community and negative impacts on other vaccine supplies to this country,” she was quoted as saying last week. Other health officials said a new government task force on vaccine procurement comprising health, trade and foreign ministry officials had not discussed possible vaccine export curbs when they held their inaugural meeting last Thursday. “[When Jeong made the comments], she was not referring to any specific measure. We are reviewing all possible alternatives, considering the global roll-out situations,” another KDCA official told This Week in Asia on Wednesday. Experts said it would be unrealistic for South Korea to take such a drastic measure as it has no vaccine patent rights and wholly relies on imports for raw materials for the shots. They also warned such moves would only damage South Korea’s international credibility as a trustworthy contract manufacturer of vaccines, depriving it of opportunities to secure further production deals from other vaccine developers. India could resume vaccine exports by June if local coronavirus cases subside “It is just beyond imagination that South Korea will dare do so,” said Choi Dae-zip, head of the Korean Medical Association, noting SK Bioscience is merely manufacturing vaccines for AstraZeneca under a commercial contract. SK Bioscience is also seeking to obtain a technology transfer from Novavax to produce Novavax vaccines. “If the government intervenes in private contracts and overturns them, no other companies would turn to South Korea for producing their products,” he said. Export curbs could be acceptable if there is an explosion in domestic Covid-19 cases, but South Korea’s daily figures are still much more stable than European countries, India and the US, he pointed out. Professor Kim Woo-joo of the Korea University Guro Hospital said foreign drug companies would also cut off raw materials or stop transferring technology to the country if there was an export curb. Critics say South Korea is experiencing a slower roll-out of vaccines than many other developed economies because officials took a wait-and-see approach as the outbreak was not as dire as in America and Europe. “It is undeniable that the government was too slow in starting efforts to secure vaccines,” said Emeritus Professor Lee Hoan-jong of Seoul National University Children’s Hospital. South Korea pushes ahead with Covid-19 vaccinations amid fake news, alarm In 2009, health authorities were in hot water after they disposed of unused swine flu vaccines, with officials in charge being reproached in parliament for purchasing more vaccine doses than were used. “This was a traumatic experience for government officials, although you always have to take a risk of losing money in developing and buying vaccines. Too much is always better than too little in terms of vaccines,” Lee said. The country’s mass immunisation programme has so far been mainly reliant on locally produced AstraZeneca shots, although it did secure a smaller volume of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines through the Covax Facility vaccine sharing initiative that are now being used for the elderly. About a million South Koreans have received their first vaccine doses. Officials hope to vaccinate 70 per cent of the country’s 51 million people before the start of the new influenza season around November. But Choi said he was sceptical whether the government could achieve this goal as planned, citing the shortages of personnel and infrastructure for the jabs. “We will probably have to wait till June next year to meet this goal, in light of the current speed and scale of jabs,” he said. The KDCA also said it was “aware” of concerns over a suspected causal connection between the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare blood clotting syndrome in a small number of recipients, which has prompted more than a dozen European countries to briefly suspend its use pending an investigation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The regulator subsequently said the vaccine was safe and effective, but it was continuing to investigate as it could not definitively rule out a connection between the shot and the rare clotting events. AstraZeneca vaccine safe even after blood clot deaths, says UK medical regulator “In order to dissipate groundless concerns over vaccinations,” the government is conducting expert reviews every week to determine connections between vaccines and abnormal reactions, the KDCA confirmed to This Week in Asia . Choi said many people who received the AstraZeneca jab reported side effects that last up to two days. “They sometimes come into emergency rooms, complaining of high fever and muscle pain after inoculations. If vaccinations are conducted en masse down the road, I am afraid emergency wards would be overwhelmed by such patients,” he said. Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters