Israel, S.Korea make Covid vax swap deal

Tel Aviv, July 6 Israel said on Tuesday that it was sending about 700,000 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to South Korea as part of a future exchange deal.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said in a statement that under the deal, Israel will "immediately" transfer vaccines to the Asian country for the vaccination of its citizens by the end of July, Xinhua news agency reported.

South Korea will return the same quantity to Israel by October, according to the agreement.

"The State of Israel welcomes the agreement and sees mutual advantages in it for both Israel and South Korea," the statement read.

Bennett said that he negotiated the deal personally in talks with Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla.

"We have made a win-win deal: South Korea will receive vaccines from our existing stocks and we will receive vaccines from their future shipment," he said in the statement.

The deal comes about three weeks after Israel reportedly transferred about 1 million doses of Pfizer's vaccines to the Palestinian National Authority.

The Palestin however, cancelled the deal before the transfer was completed, saying the vaccines were too close to expiring.

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