Nearly 400-thousand teachers and caretakers at childcare centers, kindergartens and elementary schools across the nation can make reservations for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from Thursday. 

According to the vaccination task force, the government opened reservations for the group at 12 a.m. Thursday and plans to inoculate them from next Tuesday. 

The booking system had crashed shortly after midnight, but was fixed about two hours later.

Teachers were initially scheduled to receive their first shots starting on July 28, but the date was moved up by around two weeks on the back of the arrival of 700-thousand doses of the Pfizer vaccine from Israel under a bilateral COVID-19 vaccine swap deal. 

Around 380-thousand people working at childcare centers and kindergartens, and those teaching and caring for first- and second-graders at elementary schools, are eligible to apply for the vaccine and will need to make appointments by 6 p.m. Saturday to receive it.

Their second shots are set to be administered from the first week of next month.