| Medical staffers examine citizens before COVID-19 inoculation at a vaccination center on Jeju Island, Wednesday. Yonhap |
Country reports 731 new COVID-19 cases, highest since Jan. 7
By Bahk Eun-ji
The latest blow to Korea's COVID-19 vaccination program appears to be the potential danger of blood clots being caused by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine.
The program has already been revised multiple times whenever issues emerged regarding supply or safety concerns. The situation is posing a great threat to the country's plan for reaching herd immunity by November.
On late Tuesday, the U.S. health authorities recommended temporary suspension of the use of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, citing the rare but severe instances of blood clotting.
The government has made contract with Johnson & Johnson to introduce 6 million doses with a goal to begin to bring the vaccine in the second quarter, with no specific schedule being set yet.
Unlike other vaccines that need two shots, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which had been expected to be a "game changer," needs to be administered only once.
Following the U.S. authorities' measure, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said, Wednesday, it would review the blood clotting cases from overseas and decide what to do. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine gained the ministry's approval last week.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) also said it would discuss with the ministry whether to use Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, when imported, and convene a meeting with health experts.
Earlier, there had been concerns of blood clotting with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
AstraZeneca's product initially caused controversy over its efficacy on senior citizens. Then blood clotting cases were reported here and abroad, so Korea temporarily suspended administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged under 60.
The country resumed use of the product for people under 60 on March 7, but four days later it excluded those under 30.
Under this new measure, 77.5 percent of the country's service members, or 450,000 out of 581,000 who were supposed to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in the second quarter, became unable to get the shots.
A series of these policy changes following public distrust and anxiety have made it almost impossible for the government to achieve its goal of vaccinating 12 million people within the first half of the year and achieving herd immunity by November.
The government said it may swap the vaccine with product of other companies for service members, but there are still not enough vaccines to replace it.
The volume confirmed to be introduced in the first half of this year is for 9.04 million people, and 59 percent of it, or those for 5.34 million people, are AstraZeneca's.
The government was planning to introduce other vaccines such as Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Modena in the second quarter, but the volume has not been decided yet.
Meanwhile, the country reported 731 more COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, including 714 local infections, raising the total caseload to 111,319, the KDCA said. The Tuesday number was the highest since Jan. 7.