South Korea will speed up and expand the scope of its public coronavirus vaccination program next month under a plan to complete inoculations of 12 million people by the first half of 2021, the prime minister said Friday.

"By the first half of the year, the government will work to complete the preliminary vaccine administrations of 12 million nationals," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during an interagency meeting on the country's public vaccine campaign that began last month.

The government has already secured enough COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate 79 million people under the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project and separate contracts with five foreign drug firms.

Chung said that authorities will drastically expedite and expand the scope of the vaccinations to allow a swift and broad vaccination process across the country.

According to Chung, authorities will provide an update next week on the government's vaccine program, with details regarding new developments in the vaccine purchase time table and the decision announced on Thursday to administer AstraZeneca vaccines on people aged over 65.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency initially excluded the elderly from being administered vaccines developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, citing insufficient clinical data.

In regard to the nationwide operation of in-person school classes, Chung said the authorities will prioritize vaccinations of teachers at special schools for disabled children, as well as in-school health teachers.

Chung said the government will do all it can to provide vaccinations to the rest of the teachers in general as well by reviewing the government's vaccine supply conditions. (Yonhap)