Korea OKs use of AstraZeneca vaccine for all adults

Food and Drug Safety Minister Kim Gang-lip speaks during a press conference at the ministry in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Wednesday, on the conditional approval of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for all age groups including people aged 65 or older. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday it has approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca for all adults despite lingering concerns over its efficacy and safety especially for the elderly,.

The decision is contrary to that made by a dozen other countries which have either not approved use of the vaccine from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm and Oxford University or have recommended against giving shots to people aged over 65.

Following the decision, anti-coronavirus inoculations are set to begin Feb. 26, with the AstraZeneca vaccine being the first to be administered before vaccines from other companies arrive.

The ministry said that it decided to approve the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for adults aged over 18 on condition that the pharmaceutical company submits further data on clinical trials.

The decision was made at a third review by the ministry's panels of experts. Earlier in the first assessment, participants said it would be okay to administer the vaccine to adults of all ages, while the second review group concluded that further study of its efficacy and safety for senior citizens would be needed.

"The final review panel for the vaccine concluded that it is effective in the elderly, but use for senior citizens aged 65 or older should be carefully determined according to each person's health," Drug Safety Minister Kim Gang-lip said in a press briefing Wednesday.

With the approval, vaccinations will proceed according to the plan devised by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The KDCA said it will begin by vaccinating 776,900 people including medical staff and elderly people at geriatric hospitals in the rest of first quarter. Many of the elderly here are thus likely to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The agency said it would finalize the list of vaccination recipients in the first quarter by Feb. 19. Exactly when to begin inoculations will be decided on later by its own panel of experts.

While the government here has given a positive response to the AstraZeneca vaccine, several countries have advised caution when vaccinating those over 65, mainly due to insufficient data on its safety for the elderly.

Regulators of a number of European countries including France, Germany, Sweden and Austria have questioned whether the vaccine from the company should be given to them at all ― the four decided to prioritize AstraZeneca use for those younger than 65.

Meanwhile, a survey of 1,068 adults conducted from Feb. 5 to 8 by Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Health showed 56.8 percent of Koreans want to get the coronavirus vaccine sooner than the order that will be set by the government.

In a similar survey conducted by the school a month earlier, 67.7 percent of respondents answered that they would get the vaccine after checking on whether those getting the shots first were fine.

In the meantime, the KDCA said all Korean nationals arriving from abroad must submit a negative result from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coronavirus test before embarking for the country, starting from Feb. 24. Last month, the government mandated all foreign arrivals to submit negative PCR test results.

The toughened regulation came as the number of virus variant cases from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa has been growing here.

Regardless of nationality, all arrivals should undergo a total of three diagnostic tests, one before departure, one immediately after entry and one before being released from the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.

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