A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna will arrive in South Korea early next week.

Sohn Young-rae, a senior Health Ministry official, said on Monday that 55-thousand doses of the vaccine are scheduled to arrive on May 31.

With an efficacy rate of over 90 percent, the Moderna vaccine was approved by Seoul last week, on the condition that the company submit the final outcome of its clinical studies.

It is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine Seoul has approved, after those developed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson's Janssen.

Last week South Korea's Samsung Biologics signed a consignment deal with Moderna to manufacture the vaccine at its local factory starting in the third quarter this year.