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Health authorities: Vaccine tourism undesirable, risky

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By Lee Hyo-jin

While public attention is growing over so-called "vaccine tourism" for people seeking to visit other countries in order to get COVID-19 vaccine shots, health authorities said they do not recommend such trips, as they entail certain risks.

"Although vaccine tourism is legally allowed, I wouldn't advise people to arrange such trips," Bae Kyung-taek, a senior official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Friday during a radio interview with MBC.

"It would take over a month, for instance, for an individual from Korea to complete the vaccination process in the United States," he said.

Currently, several countries, including the U.S. and the Maldives, are offering vaccines to foreign visitors.

People would need to spend one or two days travelling to the country, then stay there at least four weeks in order to receive two doses of the vaccine with a three-week interval in between. Then, upon their arrival back in Korea, they would have to spend another two weeks in mandatory self-isolation, he explained.

While the government has recently decided to allow fully vaccinated people to skip the mandatory self-isolation period after returning from overseas, the exemption rule applies only to those who have received vaccine injections in Korea.

Bae added that things may get a lot more complicated in the case of possible side effects.

"Although the chances are low, for individuals who suffer adverse reactions due to a vaccine provided by the Korean government, the government takes responsibility for them. But the government is not responsible for a person who might receive side effects after receiving the vaccine in the U.S."

In addition, he expressed concerns about the COVID-19 situation in the U.S., saying that visiting the country itself poses a higher risk of contracting the virus than in Korea.

Lee Hyo-jin lhj@koreatimes.co.kr


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