| A nursing home worker in Daegu receives a COVID-19 inoculation at a public health center in the southeastern city, Friday, when the nation started its coronavirus vaccination program. Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
People who have received COVID-19 vaccines can get a government-issued certificate confirming their vaccination status, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Friday, the same day the nation started its vaccination program.
The government will provide the certificate at its website gov.kr, or the state vaccination website nip.kdca.go.kr. As most of the vaccines ― AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax ― require two shots, except for the Johnson & Johnson product requiring one, the issuance will be available after receiving the second shot.
The certificate will show the person's name, birthdate, address and gender, as well as when and where the person received the shots and which product they were. The information will be written in both Korean and English.
If a person received only the first shot and is waiting for the second one, they will get a "confirmation document" showing they had the first jab and when they can get the second one. This is also aimed to ensure everyone gets the same product for the second shot as the first one.
But the certificate doesn't provide the holders any benefits in quarantine regulations, such as allowing them not to wear face masks, unlike Israel's "green pass" which permits inoculated people to enter public facilities. So vaccinated people here still have to abide by quarantine rules, according to the KDCA.
Instead, health authorities are considering exempting vaccinated people from having to self-quarantine after coming into contact with confirmed patients.
The KDCA is also pushing to issue the certificates in digital form to prevent forgery.
On Friday, some 5,000 healthcare workers and patients aged under 65 at 5,803 long-term care facilities across the country began receiving AstraZeneca's vaccines.
They are part of the first group to be inoculated by March, counting 289,480 people at such facilities, under the government's goal to attain herd immunity by November.
The KDCA did not designate a specific person to get the "nation's first" vaccine shot, so each local government had its own first.
President Moon Jae-in visited a public health center in Mapo District, Seoul, to observe the vaccination process and to encourage the public to actively participate in the inoculation program.
| Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines are unloaded from a Korean Air plane at Incheon Airport, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Meanwhile, the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech arrived at Incheon Airport on Friday.
The 117,000 doses came through the COVAX facility, separately from 13 million doses that the government has purchased directly from the company.
These were transported using cold-chain facilities as they have to be stored in an ultra-low temperature, and were distributed to five hospitals in major cities.
A group of about 300 medical workers taking care of COVID-19 patients in the capital area will start receiving the Pfizer shots Saturday.
In the meantime, the country added 406 new virus cases for Thursday, including 382 local infections, raising the total caseload to 88,922.
In response to the continuous sporadic outbreaks across the country, the government has decided to extend its current social distancing measures for another two weeks. The greater Seoul area will remain under Level 2, and the rest of the country under Level 1.5.