Korea to institute vaccination leave beginning April 1

By Jun Ji-hye

The government decided to institute “vaccination leave,” beginning from April 1, to ensure people suffering from immune responses after getting their COVID-19 vaccine shots have time to recover, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters announced, Sunday.

The decision was finalized during a government meeting earlier in the day, attended by Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol, Labor Minister Lee Jae-kap and Personnel Management Minister Kim Woo-Ho.

The headquarters said those who undergo adverse reactions such as fever, headache and muscle pain after getting their vaccine shots will be able to receive one-day leave the day after vaccination.

A doctor's note would not be necessary when the application for the leave is made.

“Those who continue to suffer abnormal reactions can take an additional one-day leave,” an official from the headquarters said, noting that the decision was made as most people see improvement in symptoms within 48 hours.

But the leave is not mandatory for companies, and the official added that the government will recommend private companies permit workers to take paid time off or sick leave when they suffer abnormal reactions after vaccination.

The decision followed continued reports that a number of people experienced more severe-than-expected reactions after vaccination and thus faced difficulties in working.

According to the headquarters' data, 32.8 percent of people who received the shots suffered the abnormal reactions.

The country began its vaccination program on Feb. 26, wishing to form herd immunity by November and return to “normal” pre-COVID-19 life.

But health authorities are raising concerns over the continued cases of COVID-19 mutations here as they are more transmissible than the original strain, and thus are poised to complicate the global fight against the prolonged pandemic.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), more than one in three patients infected with variants of COVID-19 had no symptoms, while more than one in five patients showed only mild signs such as coughing.

The KDCA announced its findings through a report ― the first of its kind ― Saturday, after surveying people confirmed to have been infected by coronavirus variants in Korea.

A total of 162 cases of COVID-19 variants have been reported here as of March 1. The country confirmed the first such cases on Dec. 28 when three Korean nationals who had returned from the United Kingdom were confirmed to have the new strain of COVID-19 discovered in the European country.

The results of the KDCA's epidemiological investigations into the 162 cases and analysis of clinical characteristics showed that 78.4 percent, or 127 patients, were infected with the variants during their stay in other countries, while the rest were infected here.

Patients infected with the variant believed to have originated in the U.K. accounted for 85.2 percent, followed by 11.1 percent with the South Africa variant and 3.7 percent with the Brazil variant.

Among them, male patients accounted for 65.4 percent, and Korean nationals took up 64.8 percent. The average age of the patients was 36.4.

Five patients infected with the variant from the U.K. suffered severe symptoms, and one of them died.

Patients with severe symptoms are ones requiring respirators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, which work by inserting a plastic tube into a large vein or artery through the neck, chest or groin of a patient, allowing blood to flow out into an oxygenator or artificial lung.

“Consistent analysis is necessary as studies into COVID-19 variants are still underway, and patients infected with such variants have continued to be reported,” a KDCA official said. “We need to come up with a scientific basis by keeping analyzing characteristics of the variants in a bid to block their inflow and spread.”

According to the KDCA, the country added 482 more COVID-19 cases, including 462 local infections, for Saturday, raising the cumulative number of cases to 101,757 amid the ongoing third wave of infections that began here in mid-November.