The government said Friday that some of the 762,000 oral Covid-19 treatments that the government has contracted with Pfizer would arrive in Korea next week.

"We plan to introduce Pfizer's oral treatment as scheduled in mid-January," the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said.

The government did not disclose the specific amount and date of introduction, but industry insiders predicted it would come around Thursday. The first oral Covid-19 treatment batch comes after the government signed deals to purchase about 1.4 million pills from two companies – 762,000 tablets of Pfizer's Paxlovid and 242,000 of MSD's molnupiravir.

With the introduction of the Covid-19 pills, the quarantine authorities are preparing detailed standards, such as the target of administering the introduced treatment and specific suppliers of the treatment, and plan to announce them next week.

Authorities stressed that setting priority is urgent as the initial supply may be insufficient.

Professor Sul Dae-woo of the Department of Pharmacy at Chung-Ang University, noting that people over 60 account for more than 80 percent of severe cases and 90 percent of deaths, stressed unvaccinated people in this age group should receive the treatments first.

"Vaccinated older adults should come next, and then those aged 12-59 with underlying disease," Professor Sul said.

However, experts pointed to the delayed development process of homegrown treatments.

The government also acknowledged it is not easy to explain the purchase plan for locally developed treatments in detail because an oral treatment developed by a Korean company is still in progress.

In Korea, 11 companies are conducting clinical trials for oral treatments, with two companies in phase 1 trials, six in phase 2, and three in phase 3.

Meanwhile, health officials expressed their positions on Evusheld, a Covid-19 antibody treatment developed by AstraZeneca and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a preventive agent for those not eligible for the vaccine.

"We are examining it in detail, but there are no plans to introduce it yet," said Hong Jung-ik, an official at the Covid-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team. "Evusheld is different from vaccines but has a similar preventive nature, so we are looking into its contents."

Noting that the government is reviewing the efficacy and benefits of Evusheld compared to vaccines, Hong said they would announce the introduction plan when it is decided.

On Friday, Korea's daily Covid-19 tally fell below 4,000 again as the government sped up booster vaccination shots.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed 3,717 new virus cases on Wednesday, including 3,529 local infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 657,508. Forty-five more people died of Covid-19, lifting the death toll to 5,932, with a fatality rate of 0.9 percent.

Critically ill Covid-19 patients stayed below 1,000 for the third consecutive day after the KDCA confirmed 839 critically ill Covid-19 patients.

Amid concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant, the government extended the social distancing rules for two weeks through Jan. 16, including a four-person cap on private gatherings across the nation and a 9 p.m. business hour curfew on cafes and restaurants.

The government has also been trying to stem the spread of the Omicron variant after confirming the first fatality tied to the virus earlier this week.

It has accelerated giving booster shots to help reduce the chance of people developing severe symptoms and enhance people's defense against the Omicron variant.

The government has vaccinated 44,313,710 people – 11,113,306 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 24,884,814 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,510,413 with Janssen's vaccine, 6,785,816 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 19,361 from the previous day. In addition, it has provided more than 20 million booster shots to older adults and other vulnerable groups.

Some 83.5 percent of Koreans were fully vaccinated, 86.4 percent had received their first shots, and 39.1 percent had received booster shots.

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited