Israel, South Korea strike deal on exchange of COVID-19 vaccines

By Mustafa Deveci

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israel on Tuesday stroke a deal with South Korea to send around 700,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines which are due to expire shortly.

Israel and South Korea will make a vaccine exchange under the deal signed on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Ministry.

Israel will send 700,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will expire soon, to South Korea.

In return, South Korea will send the same number of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses, already ordered from the Pfizer company, to Israel later in the year.

On June 18, Israel also agreed to exchange vaccines doses which were due to expire soon, with Palestine.

Under the deal, Israel had agreed to deliver more than 1 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to Palestine.

Palestine in return would send the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that were expected to arrive in September and October to Israel.

But the Palestinian Authority canceled the agreement on the grounds that the vaccines to be given by Israel would expire in a short time.