South Korea Launches COVID-19 Vaccination Program This Weekend, Using Two Types Of Vaccines

PfizerBiontech vaccine collage and AstraZeneca vaccine. (VOI)

JAKARTA - South Korean health authorities announced that the mass vaccination program in the country will begin on Friday this week. At the same time, the announcement also mentioned the possibility of not achieving the target of mass immunity in November 2021.

Launching Koreatimes, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced a vaccination program with a vaccine produced by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is planned for Friday. The next day, vaccination will be launched with a vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc.

Starting at 9:00 Friday morning, health care workers and patients will receive the first batch of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. This does not include those aged 65 and over, in nursing homes and other high-risk facilities

"A total of 289.271 people, or 93.6 percent of patients and people working in facilities, including sanatoriums, nursing facilities, and rehabilitation facilities, will receive the first injection of AstraZeneca's two full-dose regimens", KDCA said.

"The vaccine is produced by SK Bioscience Co., the vaccine unit of the South Korean SK Group, at a factory in the southeastern city of Andong", continued KDCA.

Meanwhile, the Pfizer vaccine will start being given to 58.500 health workers treating COVID-19 patients on Saturday. This vaccine is provided under the COVAX project which is initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The injections are carried out in 5 special facilities prepared by the government.

This is because the Pfizer vaccine requires a storage chain with ultra-cold temperatures to maintain the quality of the vaccine. Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca vaccine is sufficiently stored at a temperature of 2 - 8 degrees Celsius.

It is known that South Korea previously targeted to be able to vaccinate 70 percent of its population in September and get mass immunity in November. However, the target is pessimistic about being achieved.

The country of Ginseng has previously secured enough vaccines from COVAX and separate contracts with four foreign drug companies, with a target of vaccinating 56 million people.