Kim Yoon-tae, a doctor with Nexon Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital receives a vaccine shot against COVID-19 at Seoul Mapo Health Center on Feb. 26 as President Moon Jae-in and Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency look on. (Photos on the courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae website)

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said, “Vaccinating 12 million people with the initial dose of vaccines against COVID-19 will be completed by the first half of this year, and the speed and scope of inoculation will be expanded from next month.”

Prime Minister Chung delivered this message and others while presiding over a meeting to take stock of the inoculation strategy at the Seoul Government Complex on March 12.

The government decided to give the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people aged more than 65 and extend the inoculation interval to 10 weeks. Plans to inoculate the population will be drawn up according to changing conditions.

Chung told related ministries to make preparations so that inoculation centers across the nation will be operated as soon as possible, and private sector medical institutions need to prepare for full-fledged vaccination, which will be initiated soon.

Teachers at specialized schools for handicapped children and school health teachers will be prioritized so that pupils can return to school, he said.

“About 540,000 people or over 1 percent of the nation’s total population have been given an initial dose of shot in two weeks after the inoculation was launched,” Prime Minister Chung said.

Even though the nation started vaccination later than other countries, he said the inoculation drive is progressing at a fast pace with people’s active participation.

Korea is expected to set an example of inoculation he dubbed as “K-vaccination,” after the nation’s success in tracking, testing and treating COVID-19 cases, which had been dubbed the “the K-quarantine legend,” he said.

A committee specializing in vaccine inoculation gave the go-ahead to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shots to the elderly aged more than 65. And extend the inoculation interval from eight weeks to 10 weeks.

In Seoul, 59,000 People Inoculated against COVID-19

The Seoul Metropolitan Government finished an initial process of inoculating 59,748 Seoulites. The inoculation drive, which started on Feb. 26, covered 59,748 people as of March 10.

Among the inoculated people in Seoul were 13,448 accommodated at nursing hospitals, showing an inoculation rate of 78.2 percent and 5,643 inmates with nursing facilities, standing at an inoculation rate of 73 percent.

SMG said 1,893 primary medical respondents received an initial dose of vaccine against the COVID-19, showing an inoculation rate of 18.6 percent while 3,5307 people with hospital-level medical institutions were inoculated to record 40.1 percent.

For the National Medical Center, 3,457 medical staff members with COVID-19 case clinics were vaccinated to show a rate of 26.8 percent.

As of March 9, 720 case of abnormal reactions after inoculation were reported, equaling 1.21 percent of the total inoculated people.

A majority of the cases, or 99.2 percent, showed minor symptoms such as vomiting, fever and nauseousness.

SMG plans to install and operate its first inoculation center in mid-March.

The COVID-19 inoculation center, to be installed at the grand auditorium of the Seongdong Ward Office, will be operated by SMG in cooperation with the ward office and Seoul National Hospital.

Dir.-Gen. Park Yoo-mi in charge of citizens’ health with SMG said in an online briefing that SMG’s first COVID-19 inoculation center will be made available by mid-March, and preparations will be made to launch inoculation there from late March or early April in earnest.

Park urged all citizens to participate in the inoculation process, to be done on a gradual basis, without fail.