Vaccinations will proceed on schedule: acting prime minister

South Korea will accelerate its COVID-19 vaccination campaign with the additional vaccine doses it recently secured, the acting prime minister said Monday, dispelling concerns that a shortage could threaten the goal of achieving herd immunity by November.

Acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a public message Monday morning that the country could expect to achieve herd immunity earlier than expected and was prepared to meet any additional demand in the future.

The government has now secured more than enough shots to protect the country from the pandemic, he said.

“The government has concentrated all of our efforts on virus response and prioritized securing and supplying vaccines to end the COVID-19 pandemic through careful and comprehensive efforts,” Hong said.

“Some have so far caused excessive public anxiety by mentioning a vaccine drought using unreliable information, and that’s not true.”

Days earlier Korea had inked another deal with Pfizer to buy enough of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine for 20 million people. Including the latest deal, the country has signed deals to purchase enough COVID-19 vaccine for 99 million people so far, almost double the country’s total population.

“This additional deal with Pfizer has helped us establish grounds to advance our target date for herd immunity, as well as preparations for additional demand in the future from inoculation for those under 18 and booster shots in fighting virus variants,” he said.

Almost all countries are facing uncertainty as they try to secure enough vaccines -- with the exceptions of the United States, Britain and Israel -- but Korea is better equipped than most as the country has its own domestic manufacturing capacity, Hong added.

The government has faced fierce criticism in recent weeks over the slow pace of the vaccination program, on top of being late in buying vaccines from foreign developers.

According to Our World in Data, a project of the University of Oxford that analyzed the percentages of different populations that had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Korea was in 42nd place out of 130 countries.

Since the vaccination campaign began Feb. 26, Korea had provided first shots to 2.26 million people, or 4.4 percent of its population, as of Sunday’s end.

The country aims to vaccinate 3 million people by the end of this month, 12 million before July starts and 36 million by September’s end. The goal to achieve herd immunity -- that is, to have 70 percent of the population vaccinated -- remains in place.

While delivering the public message, the acting prime minister also stressed that the government was committed to ensuring safety for all those receiving the vaccines. He was responding to concerns about continued reports of serious adverse events following vaccination, which have undermined public trust in the program.

“The vaccines that the government has secured are being given only because they have proven their safety and efficacy worldwide,” Hong said.

“The government is well aware of people’s concerns on the safety of vaccination, and we prioritized people’s health the most. The government is thoroughly monitoring any adverse symptoms that can occur in relation to vaccination.”

Yet the acting prime minister emphasized that real compensation cannot take place until a link is established between the vaccines and the reported adverse events. The government has maintained this stance since adverse symptoms were first identified in Korea when the vaccination campaign started.

In light of the serious nature of the adverse events, calls have grown for the government to draw up a compensation plan to deal with suspected vaccine injuries.

A total of 13,609 cases of side effects have been reported after vaccinations, with 1.9 percent being serious. The country has reported 60 deaths after coronavirus vaccinations, but none were directly linked to the vaccines.

But Hong said the government would find ways to preemptively support medical expenses in some cases, in connection with existing medical welfare support policies.

By Ko Jun-tae (ko.juntae@heraldcorp.com)