The government will push to reduce the use and sale of antibiotics to protect the public against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The health ministry plans to scale back the sale of human antibiotics by 20 percent and non-human antibiotics by ten percent through 2025.

The ministry made the announcement on Monday, saying the measures were determined with other agencies through the approval of expert committees on antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases.

The ministry called for adequate prescription of antibiotics in the most necessary situations in both their quantity and type.

The amount of antibiotics used is known to directly link to the activity of resistant bacteria. In 2019, South Korea reported the third-highest medical use among OECD nations at 26-point-one DID, or the daily dose per one-thousand people.