Korea to begin mass vaccination with medical workers next month; AstraZeneca's tipped to be 1st
A medical worker conducts a COVID-19 test at a makeshift site in Seoul, Dec. 14, 2020. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Front-line medical workers in South Korea will get the first COVID-19 vaccinations starting next month, with the general public to be inoculated during the latter half of this year, health authorities here said Thursday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced that medical professionals treating COVID-19 patients at hospitals and treatment centers in the wider Seoul area will receive their first doses of the vaccines in February.
The authorities estimated around 50,000 medical workers will be vaccinated, followed by another 780,000 people that includes patients at sanatoriums and elderly care facilities, as well as high-risk health care workers, during the first quarter.
Starting in mid-March, medical workers at general hospitals with a high number of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms will begin vaccinations, the KDCA said.
Other front-line COVID-19 workers such as paramedics, quarantine officers and epidemiological investigators will also be subject to inoculations starting in mid-March, it said.
The combined number is expected to be around 440,000, the authorities said.
The COVID-19 vaccines will be administered at the country's first vaccination center at the state-run National Medical Center located in central Seoul, the KDCA said.
The KDCA then will build three additional vaccination sites run by general hospitals only dedicated to treating COVID-19 patients in other parts of the country,
Starting in the second quarter, people aged 65 or older, and people admitted to or working at other high-risk facilities for elders and the disabled, will get the shots, the KDCA said. The number is estimated to be around 9.4 million.
Also, a total of 380,000 health care workers working at neighborhood clinics and pharmacists across the country will also be eligible for the vaccinations starting in the second quarter, the KDCA said.
The vaccines will be provided to those suffering from chronic diseases and adults aged between 19 and 64 starting in the third quarter, they said.
The agency also noted that government officials working in core tasks or those who need an emergency departure due to important economic activity will also be eligible for early vaccinations following evaluation.
The KDCA said it aims to get 70 percent of its population inoculated by September and form so-called herd immunity by November by providing free COVID-19 vaccines to all nationals.
The government has already secured COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate 56 million people under the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project and separate contracts with four foreign drug firms.
AstraZeneca Plc.'s vaccines and those provided under COVAX are expected to be first shipped around February, followed by Johnson Johnson's, Janssen's and Moderna's in the second quarter and Pfizer Inc.'s in the third quarter. (Yonhap)