South Korea yesterday announced plans to expand its immunization campaign in the second quarter to include more elderly citizens, healthcare workers and other front-line professionals, with an aim to inoculate nearly one-quarter of its 52 million people by June.
Starting next month, more priority groups are to receive a vaccine, including more people aged 65 or above, other healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers and flight attendants, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
South Korea began inoculating high-risk medical workers and the critically ill at the end of last month as it battles a third wave of COVID-19 and seeks to achieve herd immunity by November.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Our primary goal is to vaccinate up to 12 million people within the first half of this year,” KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a news conference. “We’re seeking to focus on protecting high-risk groups, while preventing schools and care places from infection, and inoculating more health and medical workers, and those who play an essential role in society.”
However, health authorities have cut their first-quarter inoculation target by more than 40 percent to about 750,000 people after delaying the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on people aged 65 and older, citing a lack of clinical trial data.
South Korea authorized the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for that age group last week. More than 95 percent of the nearly 590,000 who were inoculated as of Sunday had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, KDCA data showed.
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