Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Experts call for cold chain preparation for vaccination
A medical worker conducts a coronavirus test at a makeshift testing center in front of Seoul Station, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Ahead of Korea's planned COVID-19 vaccination program that will start possibly next month, experts said a proper storage and distribution system is required so that vaccines can reach people ready to be used.
The government has so far secured vaccine doses for 56 million people from four suppliers ― AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, and Pfizer ― as well as through COVAX, but multiple steps are required to deliver the glass vials of vaccine to local hospitals and medical institutions as most of them have to be refrigerated at certain temperatures.
Among them, Moderna's vaccine has to be shipped at minus 20 degrees Celsius, and it can then be stored at that temperature for six months. Pfizer's vaccine must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius, and once unfrozen for administration, it must be administered within five days. Vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen can be stored at a temperature similar to ordinary flu vaccines.
Likewise, experts warn that unexpected spoiling could occur if vaccine rollout begins without a temperature-controlled supply system, called a “cold chain.”
“Thankfully we secured enough vaccine doses, but that doesn't mean everything will work well,” said Kim Woo-joo, an infectious diseases professor at Korea University Guro Hospital who is responsible for overseeing clinical trials of domestic pharmaceutical companies' vaccines.
“There are a lot of things to do, including securing ultra-low-temperature freezers and establishing places for inoculation, educating medical staff and preparing a safety monitoring system after inoculation,” Kim said. “We have only a month left before vaccination begins in February.”
In particular, experts point out the government should strengthen education to medical staffers on vaccines that are difficult to store.
“We have many years of experience with flu vaccination, so there will be no big problems with AstraZeneca's vaccines, but the medical workers who will handle the vaccine should be properly educated,” said Kim Tak, a professor at the Infectious Medicine Department of Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital.
“As there are few hospitals that maintain a cold chain system properly at present, the health authorities need to prepare separate facilities as well as medical workers who will work exclusively on vaccine inoculation,” Kim added.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said in a press briefing Monday that the agency plans to collect experts' opinions and proceed with vaccinations as scheduled from the end of next month without delay.
“We are planning to start inoculations for workers at high-risk medical facilities and elderly people at geriatric hospitals probably around late February, and conduct consultations and simulations for the cold chain storage and distribution with related companies,” Jeong said.
Meanwhile, the nation reported 715 new COVID-19 infections for Monday, according to the KDCA, Tuesday, which was a sharp fall from 1,020 the previous day, as the country extended tougher social distancing guidelines and stepped up monitoring at nursing homes and other risk-prone facilities.
Among the locally transmitted cases, 193 were reported in Seoul, 214 in Gyeonggi Province and 48 in Incheon, west of Seoul. Twenty-six additional deaths were reported, raising the toll to 1,007.