Seoul: An agency in the United Nations said on Friday that the COVAX Facility, a global vaccine delivery platform, has assigned 1.29 million doses of extra Covid-19 shots to North Korea.

The addition reportedly brings the total number of vaccines allocated to North Korea to 8.12 million doses, according to Unicef's Covid-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard. The figure is up from the previous estimate of 6.83 million, which included 4.7 million COVAX doses sent to the North last month.

COVAX had previously allotted AstraZeneca's vaccinations for the North, therefore the type of the freshly awarded vaccines was not immediately known. Though the dosages have yet to be shipped to the isolated country, the overall number is enough to inoculate about 16 percent of the population.

Since last year, North Korea has imposed a severe border lockdown to stave off the virus, claiming to be coronavirus-free.

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