Administering of COVID-19 vaccines to general public to begin next month
A temporary COVID-19 testing center in front of Suwon Station in Gyeonggi Province is crowded, Sunday, following the recent administrative order from Gyeonggi Provincial Government for all foreign workers in the area to take a COVID-19 test. Yonhap
Concerns over resurgence of infections rise amid over 400 new cases for 6th day
By Jun Ji-hye
Korea will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines to the general public next month, with residents aged 65 and older given priority, based on the belief that prompt vaccination is the key to returning to normal daily life.
Health authorities will announce detailed plans of the expanded vaccination program for the second quarter, Monday.
The country began its inoculation program last month ― AstraZeneca's vaccines began to be administered to workers and patients under the age of 65 at geriatric hospitals and nursing homes, Feb. 26. Then, Pfizer's vaccines began to be administered the following day to medical and other workers at hospitals designated to treat virus patients.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Sunday, a total of 587,884 people have been inoculated as of Saturday.
“The government is striving to proceed with the inoculation program even faster as we believe the key to restoring regular daily life depends on how promptly vaccinations go,” Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol said during a government meeting on COVID-19 response, Saturday.
“Besides those at geriatric hospitals and nursing homes and workers at hospitals, the general public will begin getting vaccinated in April. We are considering giving priority to those aged 65 and older.”
The comments came as concerns over another mass outbreak of infections are still abounding, with the number of new daily cases having stayed above 400 for the sixth consecutive day.
The country added 459 more COVID-19 cases, including 436 local infections, for Saturday, raising the cumulative number of cases to 95,635 amid the ongoing third wave of infections that began here in mid-November.
The daily caseload was tallied at 446 last Monday, 470 Tuesday, 465 Wednesday, 488 Thursday and 490 Friday, the highest since Feb. 18, raising concerns about a virus resurgence amid continued sporadic infection clusters traced to family gatherings, saunas and workplaces.
According to the authorities, the number of residents aged 65 and older subject to inoculations for the second quarter is estimated at about 8.5 million.
Those who will also be subject to inoculations would include 380,000 workers at dental clinics, traditional herbal medicine clinics and pharmacies as well as 20,000 flight attendants.
The authorities said they decided to include flight attendants among the inoculation targets in a bid to stem the spread of new variants of the coronavirus, which are identified overseas including in the United Kingdom, and known to be more transmissible.
Health teachers and special school teachers who care for handicapped children are also expected to be included in the inoculation targets for the second quarter, the authorities added, noting that inoculations would be expanded to all teachers soon.
Regarding this, Jung Jae-hun, a preventive medicine specialist at Gachon University of Medicine and Science, said, “I agree with the need to give priority to teachers in the inoculation program as normalization in school would be the first step toward normalization in society.”
Meanwhile, the country will maintain the current social distancing level, which was set to expire on Sunday, until March 28, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Saturday.
Currently, the Seoul metropolitan area is under Level 2 ― the third-highest in the country's five-tier system ― while other regions are at Level 1.5.
A ban on private gatherings of five or more people will also be maintained, with an exception of up to eight people allowed for private gatherings of direct family members.