South Korea Suspends Use Of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Vaccine, Vaccination Program Disrupted

Vaksin AstraZeneca. (Wikimedia Commons/Gencat)

JAKARTA - South Korean health authorities have decided to suspend the COVID-19 vaccination program with the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under the age of 60. This was taken in connection with concerns about blood clots.

The decision was taken when the European Medicine Agency (EMA), the EU's medicines regulator, will hold a meeting this week to review cases of blood clots found in people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"We made this preventive decision to put the safety of people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine above all else," explained Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Head Jeong Eun-kyeong Head of the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

"Based on the EMA's findings, we will have in-depth discussions with experts here and respond quickly," he continued.

Last month, the EMA noted no evidence linking AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine and increased reports of blood clotting, although it could not rule out correlations for rare cases of intravascular coagulation diseminata (DIC) and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

The EMA said that as of March 16, there had only been seven cases of DIC and 18 cases of CVST out of the 20 million people in the UK and European Economic Areas who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Most of them occur in people under 55 and the majority are women, according to the EMA.

In South Korea, a woman in her 20s was diagnosed with blood clots in her legs and lungs on Monday, after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine last month. He first showed symptoms 12 days after inoculation, according to health authorities.

This is the third reported case of blood clotting in people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. In the first reported case last month, a blood clot was found on the body of a woman in her 60s who died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, health authorities concluded there was no link between the vaccine and its condition.

With this announcement, the schedule of THE COVID-19 vaccination program with AstraZeneca vaccine for special education instructors and teachers in kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and high school, with a total of about 70,000 people that was originally implemented today, is automatically suspended.

Wednesday's suspension also affects those working in correctional institutions and facilities for people with disabilities. Initially, they are scheduled to receive the vaccine on Friday.

For the record, AstraZeneca's two-dose vaccine regimen for frontline medical workers and employees as well as patients in nursing homes began on Feb. With the disruption of the vaccination schedule, South Korea may have difficulty achieving herd immunity by next November.