South Korea received 700,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from Israel on Wednesday morning as a part of an exchange deal.
Under the deal, Seoul will return the same amount of coronavirus shots to Israel later this year from a future order.
South Korea’s vaccination campaign has yet to gather speed, with only 30% of its population receiving first doses as of Wednesday.
Just around 10% of the population have received their second doses.
The country reported more than 1,200 new cases of the COVID-19, a level unseen since the worst of its outbreak in winter.
Most of the new cases were from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the country’s 51 million people, but infections were also occurring in other major cities and regions, including Busan, Daejeon, Daegu and the southern resort island of Jeju.
South Korea’s total of reported infections is now at 162,753 after adding around 5,800 cases this month alone.
The death toll is at 2,033.
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