South Korea Begins Vaccinating People In 18-49 Age Bracket Against COVID-19

SEOUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2021) South Korea decided to begin vaccinating citizens in the 18-49 age group in August-September as COVID-19 numbers continue to grow, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported Saturday.

Initially, the country planned to complete vaccinating 70% of the country's population (36 million people) by November. However, due to the rise in new cases, with about 2000 being registered per day since July 7, the government decided to administer at least the first dose of the vaccine to those under 50 by the end of September.

People can register for vaccination from August 9 to August 18, and vaccines will be administered from August 26 to September 30. It is estimated that some 17.7 million people aged 18-49 will get the shot. To streamline the process, citizens will be divided into 10 groups according to the last digit of their date of birth, and each group will apply on a specific day.

Additional registration period will be open from August 19 to September 17.

The local authorities will also have the right to identify those who have the priority in vaccination. For these groups, registration will begin on August 3, and the shots can be given from August 17 to September 11

Pfizer and Moderna drugs will be used for vaccination.

The delivery of about 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine to South Korea, scheduled for July, was postponed due to production issues. On Friday, reports surfaced that 1.3 million doses of Moderna will arrive in South Korea on August 6-7. A total of 8.5 million doses of this vaccine is expected to be delivered by the end of summer.