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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Korea set to begin mass vaccination Friday

A medical worker in a booth talks with her colleague at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. APGov't prepares for vaccine shots as 1st batch of 1.5 million doses begins to shipTrucks and ships carrying the first batch of some 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines headed across the country Thursday, marking the start of the long-awaited vaccination program in South Korea, where COVID-19 cases are nearing 90,000 since the first confirmed case in January last year.The nationwide distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine for some 750,000 people, mostly health care workers and patients at nursing homes, came as the country is set to kick off the free inoculation campaign Friday.The vaccine doses were produced at a local plant by SK Bioscience Co. under a manufacturing partnership deal with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The sealed one-ton truck, escorted by the police and military vehicles and personnel, first left a cold chain logistics warehouse in Icheon, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, around 5:50 a.m.The first shipment for a total of 5

Feb 25, 2021
Korea set to begin mass vaccination Friday
  • Korea reports 396 more cases of coronavirus; total now at 88,516

South Korea extends suspension of flights from Britain till March 11

Quarantine officials guide passengers at the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. YonhapSouth Korea on Wednesday extended its suspension of direct flights from Britain for two more weeks, as part of efforts to block the inflow of a more transmissible variant of the new coronavirus.The suspension, which had been scheduled to end on Thursday, will remain in place until March 11, according to health authorities and the South Korean Embassy in Britain. Seoul first introduced the ban on flights from Britain in December.South Korea has reported 128 cases of mutated COVID-19 strains, including 109 from Britain, 13 from South Africa, and six from Brazil, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).The authorities have been beefing up efforts to stop the inflow of COVID-19 variants from overseas, as they are thought to be more transmissible and could complicate efforts to curb the winter wave of the virus.The country's daily new coronavirus cases came to 440 on Wednesday, raising the total caseload to 88,120, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)

Feb 24, 2021
South Korea extends suspension of flights from Britain till March 11

All overseas arrivals required to submit negative PCR test results

A woman submits documents to quarantine officials at Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. YonhapBy Lee Hyo-jin All travelers entering Korea, including Korean nationals, are required to submit negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results starting Wednesday in order to curb the influx of new variants, according to health authorities. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said all arrivals, regardless of their nationality, must submit negative PCR test results conducted within 72 hours prior to their departure for Korea.The document must be in hard copy form issued in English or Korean. If it cannot be issued in either language, a supplemental translated version certifying the translation should be submitted along with the original test result.Transfer passengers passing through Korea without entering are excluded from the rule. Foreign nationals who fail to hand in the test results will be barred from entering. Korean citizens who do not submit negative PCR test results will be tested at a temporary living facility and be required to self-isolate

Feb 24, 2021By Lee Hyo-jin
All overseas arrivals required to submit negative PCR test results

Nearly 70% of Koreans in favor of bill on disqualifying convicted doctors

The office of the Korean Medical Association in Seoul / YonhapNearly 70 percent of South Koreans are in favor of a bill on disqualifying doctors convicted of felonies, which is currently under review at the National Assembly, a public opinion poll showed Wednesday. According to the survey conducted Tuesday on 500 people aged 18 or older by Realmeter, 68.5 percent of the respondents were in support of the bill to revise the Medical Service Act. Another 26 percent, however, objected to the bill, while the remaining 5.5 percent said they are not sure, the poll showed. The support rate for the bill was particularly high among people in their 40s, with 85.6 percent of those in the age group supporting the proposed revision. The support rate was even higher at 89.9 percent among those who back the ruling Democratic Party (DP), while the corresponding rate among the supporters of the main opposition People Power Party was 38.8 percent, it also showed. The survey, commissioned by internet news outlet Ohmy News, has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 per

Feb 24, 2021
Nearly 70% of Koreans in favor of bill on disqualifying convicted doctors

New virus cases rebound to over 400 ahead of vaccine rollout

People wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus stretch at a park in Seoul, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. APSouth Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Wednesday on continued cluster infections across the country ahead of the country's COVID-19 vaccine rollout this week.The country reported 440 more virus cases, including 417 local infections, raising the total caseload to 88,120, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).Wednesday's daily caseload is a sharp rise from 357 cases amid unrelenting group infections. The figures hovered above 600 last week before falling below 500 over the weekend.The country added three more deaths, raising the total to 1,576. The fatality rate came to 1.79 percent. The latest rebound is attributable to the eased social distancing scheme that has been in place since last week after the Lunar New Year's holiday, which ran from Feb. 11 to 13.The country decided to apply Level 2 distancing for the Seoul metropolitan area, which houses half of the nation's 52 million population. Level 2 is one

Feb 24, 2021
New virus cases rebound to over 400 ahead of vaccine rollout
  • Doubts raised over achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 by November

Doubts raised over achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 by November

A medical staffer takes part in a training for COVID-19 vaccinationat a nursing home in Gwangju, Tuesday, ahead of the inoculation scheduled to start on Friday. YonhapBy Lee Hyo-jin The government's rollout of its COVID-19 vaccination program is just around the corner with the goal of achieving herd immunity in Korea by November. But health experts say that this target may not be so easy to reach as the plan could be affected by several variables. Beginning with the first inoculations Friday of patients and healthcare workers aged under 65 at nursing homes, the administration plans to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by September in order to achieve the immunity by the set date.But a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, predicted that Korea's widespread vaccination coverage of 70 percent of adults will only be possible by mid-2022.Criteria taken into account for the forecast included supply and production constraints, vaccine hesitancy, population size, and the availability of healthcare workers. “It is tricky to stabl

Feb 23, 2021By Lee Hyo-jin
Doubts raised over achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 by November
  • New virus cases rebound to over 400 ahead of vaccine rollout

Korea set to begin mass vaccination this week

Members of Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union attend a rally calling for measures to expand manpower at the coronavirus hospitals and improve their working conditions outside of National Assembly in Seoul, Feb. 17, 2021. APSouth Korea will begin its first inoculations against the novel coronavirus later this week, health authorities said Tuesday, adding it might not be able to achieve herd immunity by November.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said it will launch the free inoculation program with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's vaccine Friday and with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine Saturday.Starting at 9:00 a.m. Friday, health care workers and patients, excluding those aged 65 and older, at nursing homes and other high-risk facilities will receive the first batch of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.A total of 289,271 people, or 93.6 percent of the patients and people working at facilities, including sanatoriums, nursing facilities and rehabilitation facilities, said they will receive the first

Feb 23, 2021
Korea set to begin mass vaccination this week
  • New virus cases in 300s for 2nd day

New virus cases in 300s for 2nd day

A medical worker wearing protective gear disinfects gloves in the sub-zero temperatures at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, Feb. 16, 2021. APSouth Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed below 400 for the second straight day Tuesday on fewer tests over the weekend, but authorities are vigilant over the rising reproduction rate amid eased social distancing measures and an increase in the number of patients infected with COVID-19 variants.The country reported 357 more virus cases, including 330 local infections, raising the total caseload to 87,681, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).On Monday, South Korea reported 332 cases, the lowest in a week. It marked a sharp decrease from more than 600 daily virus cases reported last week, before falling below 500 over the weekend.The country added 11 more deaths, raising the total to 1,573. The fatality rate came to 1.79 percent. Despite a slowdown in virus cases, health authorities are still concerned over the rise in the reproduction rate of the virus estimated at 1.12, which indicates that a single COV

Feb 23, 2021
New virus cases in 300s for 2nd day
  • Korea set to begin mass vaccination this week

Eyes on RDIF's additional partners to produce Sputnik V

Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine / AFP-YonhapBy Nam Hyun-wooAttention is growing on who will form a consortium with GL Rapha and manufacture Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Korea, as delegates from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) visited the company's plant in the Gangwon Province city of Chuncheon and plan to announce the members of the consortium as early as Tuesday.According to GL Rapha and its subsidiary Hankook Korus Pharm, Monday, a team of delegates from RDIF visited Hankook Korus' plant in the city for on-site validation of its manufacturing facilities.An official at GL Rapha said the RDIF has completed its process of selecting possible consortium partners and is planning to name them by Feb. 23. GL Rapha signed a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) deal with RDIF in November last year to manufacture over 150 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine per year. The Korean company has been manufacturing Sputnik V since December. To boost manufacturing volume, GL Rapha has been seeking to form a consortium of Korean drug manufacturers, with expectations flying that

Feb 22, 2021By Nam Hyun-woo
Eyes on RDIF's additional partners to produce Sputnik V

Less than half of Koreans willing to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots now: poll

GettyimagesbankLess than half of South Koreans are willing to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots immediately, without waiting for further reports on those vaccines' effects, an opinion poll showed Monday.In the survey conducted on 1,020 people aged 18 or over by the Korea Society Opinion Institute from last Friday to Saturday, only 45.8 percent said they are willing to be vaccinated "right away" when their turn for COVID-19 vaccine shots comes.Another 45.7 percent responded they will delay their vaccinations to "watch the situation" regarding the vaccines' effects, while 5.1 percent said they will refuse vaccine shots entirely, according to the poll result. The remaining 3.4 percent said they are not sure. The survey also showed that 55.8 percent of the respondents have confidence in the government's handling of the national vaccination program, while 41.1 percent have distrust.The survey, commissioned by radio broadcaster TBS, has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The survey result came as the country is set to kick off a nation

Feb 22, 2021
Less than half of Koreans willing to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots now: poll
  • UK speeds up vaccinations: All adults get 1st jab by July 31
  • Coronavirus vaccines: Signs of weaker response to new strains in South Africa, Brazil
  • Vietnam to start COVID-19 vaccinations in March: state media
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