On the 11th, a person who received the AstraZeneca Corona 19 vaccine at the public health center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, is heading to the adverse reaction observation room. News 1
The government has decided to give a new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine to elderly people over 65. It is one step closer to the vaccination goal for the first half of this year, which is to reduce the mortality rate. The quarantine authorities expect that the incidence of large-scale group infections will gradually decrease in the future if vaccination is initiated to 376,000 people aged 65 or older in nursing hospitals and nursing facilities.
The problem is in the second quarter. In three months, 9 million people need to be vaccinated, and even in mid-March, the government has not been able to come up with an inoculation plan after April. In Korea, 75 cases of mutant infections in the United States and Nigeria have been confirmed, in addition to mutations originating in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil, which are considered major corona 19 mutant viruses. The reasons for speeding up vaccination are growing, but concerns arise that the supply of additional vaccines remains uncertain.
Why the second quarter vaccination plan is not coming
The COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team said on the 11th, “At the vaccination committee held on the 10th, it was decided to inoculate the AstraZeneca Corona 19 vaccine to elderly people over 65 from this month. It is planned to be announced next week.”
According to the promotion team, the vaccination rate of those who received the vaccination in the first quarter recorded 64% as of 0 o’clock on the day. As the vaccination rate has exceeded half, it is expected that a vaccination plan for the second quarter will come out on this day. On the 8th, Jung Eun-kyung, head of the vaccination response promotion team (Director of the Korea Disease Management Administration), said on the 8th that “the 2nd quarter vaccination plan is drafting and will be announced after review by the Vaccination Specialist Committee. However, the announcement of the second quarter vaccination plan was postponed next week.
According to the vaccination plan announced by the government in January, in the second quarter of this year, a total of 9 million people, including users and workers of homeless welfare facilities for the elderly, seniors aged 65 and over, workers in medical institutions and pharmacies, and residents and workers in facilities for the disabled and homeless, will be vaccinated. .
However, they are still silent about whether all the vaccines necessary for this have been secured. The government’s newly unveiled schedule for supply of additional vaccines is that 3.5 million of the 10 million contracts with AstraZeneca will be introduced from the end of May to June. Considering the supply period from the end of May, it is said that this quantity is closer to the use of vaccinations in the third quarter than in the second quarter.
The AstraZeneca vaccine that has been secured so far, 787,000 people, and 58,500 Pfizer vaccines, are almost exhausted by vaccinations by people in nursing hospitals and facilities, and workers in treatment hospitals for COVID-19 patients.
Modena and NovaVax vaccine coming in the second quarter’Gamgam news’
The amount of vaccine available in the second quarter so far is 1.05 million Covac’s AstraZeneca vaccine (345,000 at the end of March, 75,000 from April to May) and 3.5 million Pfizer contract vaccines (March). 500,000 horses, 3 million from April to June). Together, it accounts for 4.55 million people, which is only half of the 9 million people who will be vaccinated in the second quarter. If 3 million Pfizer vaccines are supplied in June in the second quarter, it is highly likely to be in fact in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, a portion of the Modena and NovaVax vaccines, which were contracted for 20 million people each, and a portion of the Janssen vaccine, which was contracted for 6 million people, should be introduced. If 9 million people are to be vaccinated, about 100,000 people should be vaccinated on average per day from April to June. However, the government is silent about the actual quantity and specific timing. On this day, the head of the resource management team of the Yangdong Bridge Promotion Group repeated only the previous explanation, saying, “The vaccine supply schedule and quantity have not yet been specified,” and “We will make sure that there is no setback in the second quarter vaccination.”
“If the vaccine is late, the antibodies from the existing inoculum will also fall.”
The promotion team said, “We plan to use 345,000 copies of the Kovacs AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be supplied at the end of March,” for the elderly aged 65 or older at nursing hospitals and facilities that have been converted to vaccination targets. If there is a problem with the supply of the vaccine, the vaccine for the second vaccination of those who have been currently vaccinated may be used first. It is said that the quarantine authorities increased the interval between the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from 8 weeks to 10 weeks because of the unstable supply and demand of the vaccine.
To date, the number of people vaccinated against Corona 19 (500,000,635 people) is only 0.96% of the total population in Korea. According to the vaccination plan released in January, the number of vaccinations in the third and fourth quarters (33.25 million people) is more than three times that of the first and second quarters (10.30 million people). Even if not, vaccinations are concentrated in the second half of the year, but if the supply of vaccines in the second quarter is slow, the number of vaccinations will increase in the second half.
Eun-mi Chun, a professor of respiratory medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, said, “The later the supply of vaccines is delayed, the more antibodies will fall to those who have been vaccinated at the beginning.”
Lim So-hyung reporter [email protected]
News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver.
