South Korea approves first corona vaccine

South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has approved Sky Covin, the country's first home-made corona vaccine. The vaccine, developed by the country's pharmaceutical company SK Bioscience, is suitable for use by people 18 years of age or older. Food and Drug Safety Ministry officials told the Associated Press that Sky Covin's effectiveness had been tested on about 4,000 volunteers before final approval was given. Officials claim the two-dose vaccine is more effective than the Oxford-AstraZeneca. However, citing experts, AP News reported that Sky Covin is less effective against Omicron, Delta and other variants of coronavirus than it is effective in preventing the transmission of the original coronavirus. Delta and Amicron, variants of the coronavirus, have caused the most infections and deaths in corona worldwide over the past year. Omicron was even responsible for the latest wave of infections in South Korea. The country's immunization programs are mainly using MRNA corona vaccines like Pfizer-Bioentech and Modern. But the South Korean government is hopeful that people will also become interested in Sky Covin. At a news conference on Wednesday, Food and Drug Administration Minister Oh Yu-kyung said, "Sky Covin is proof that South Korea is capable of developing an international standard corona vaccine." Since the onset of the epidemic in 2020, a total of 1,63,49,758 people have been infected with the South Korean corona and a total of 24,537 people have died of covidar-related illnesses. The number of corona-positive patients in the country on Wednesday was 10,438 and 8 people died of the disease. South Korea has relaxed most of its corona restrictions since the beginning of the year, but experts say the current rate of infection is likely to push the country to another wave soon.