A medical worker prepares to administer Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in northern Seoul on June 3, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The effort to bring up the rate of individuals receiving 3rd booster shots for COVID-19 is being curtailed as the government lifted the so-called ‘vaccine pass’ policy on Tuesday, which was originally introduced to encourage vaccinations.
Korea’s Central Disease Control Headquarters reported that only 61.4 percent of the population in South Korea had received the third round of vaccinations, which is far behind the 95 percent rate of first and secondary vaccinations.
“Lifting the vaccine pass policy is expected to slow down the third round of vaccinations,” said Jeong Eun-kyung, head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
“Nevertheless, we strongly urge you to receive the third round of vaccinations to fight against the omicron variant.” Jeong didn’t mention any other alternative measures to speed up the third round of vaccinations.
A new vaccine pass policy which was to take effect on April 1 has also been scrapped, undermining the drive to vaccinate children and teenagers, who have been seeing an increasing number of infections in recent months.
What’s more, schools started their offline semester on Wednesday, which is expected to raise the risk of infections among children and teens.
“The omicron variant is spreading rapidly. It takes time for vaccines to generate immunity, and they have been known to prevent no more than 70 percent of all omicron infections,” said Chun Eun-mi, a professor at the Ewha Womans University Medical Center.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
