In a handful of South Korean hospitals, designated nurses are using specially designed syringes to squeeze extra doses of coronavirus vaccine out of each vial in a bid to stretch the still limited number of vials to cover more people.

The practice has raised debate over medical safety and commercial concerns from the manufacturers who charge by the dose, according to Reuters.

But at Seoul's National Medical Centre, healthcare workers say it's actually a safe and easy process that should be a no-brainer for countries struggling to provide enough vaccines quickly.

“Two designated nurses take shifts to extract the doses and each of us had no trouble getting seven doses from each vial, vaccinating everyone,” said Kim Eun-suk, an intravenous therapy specialist who was taking a shift extracting doses of Pfizer's vaccine from vials that officially only hold six.