Jeong Eun-kyung, head of the new coronavirus infectious disease vaccination and response promotion team (Director of the Disease Control and Prevention Administration), is announcing the plan to implement the corona 19 vaccination in February and March at the Chungju Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chungbuk Province. Newsis
The number 1 vaccination for the new coronavirus infection in Korea (Corona 19) is expected to come out of nursing hospitals and nursing home staff. The government announced on the 15th that the AstraZeneca vaccination will begin on about 270,000 people under the age of 65, including those in nursing hospitals, from the 26th through the’Corona 19 Vaccination February-March Implementation Plan’. Subsequently, the vaccination will be expanded to medical staff in large hospitals, corona response personnel, and corona treatment medical staff, and the first vaccination will be completed for about 760,000 people by March. Vaccinations for the elderly over 65 years old in nursing hospitals, which were ranked first in vaccinations at the beginning, will be pushed to the second quarter and will only be available in April.
AstraZeneca vaccine. AP=Yonhap News
The 1st vaccination to 760,000 people by March
On the 15th, Eun-kyung Chung, head of the Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team (Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) held a briefing and said, “First of all, we will start vaccination against the AstraZeneca vaccine for hospitalized, residents and workers under the age of 65 in group facilities for the elderly. The decision was made through a review of an expert advisory group in the field of Corona 19 vaccine and deliberation by the Vaccination Review Committee.”
Accordingly, from the 26th, 272,131 people, or 42% of the 64,8855 residents and workers in nursing hospitals, facilities, mental hospitals, mental care and rehabilitation facilities, will start vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine. As the vaccination was restricted to those under the age of 65, a significant number of vaccinations (228,000, about 84%) are workers. The authorities said that the 1st inoculation will also come from workers such as nursing hospitals. In nursing hospitals where doctors work, the patient receives the delivery and inoculates on its own, and in facilities where there is no doctor, the health center visit team or a contracted doctor visits and inoculates. The 1st vaccination is finished by next month, and the 2nd vaccination starts from April to May.
About 37,700 elderly people aged 65 or older in nursing hospitals, which were the top priority at first, are expected to be vaccinated only in the second quarter. As controversy about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the elderly rose up, it was decided to postpone vaccination until further data were confirmed. General Manager Jeong said, “For those 65 years of age and older, we plan to confirm additional clinical information on the effectiveness of the vaccine (expected at the end of March) and then finalize the vaccination plan through deliberation by the Vaccination Specialist Committee.” It is reported that AstraZeneca will submit phase 3 clinical data of its vaccine to the United States around the end of March. Authorities expect that this will include a large number of elderly people, which will resolve the controversy over the prevention effect.
Graphic of initial vaccination plan by major target = Reporter Kim Joo-won [email protected]
The promotion team said that it is important to increase the vaccination rate in order to achieve the COVID-19 vaccination goal. “The safety and immunogenicity have already been confirmed, so there was a judgment that it was effective to prevent serious (progression) and death, but we gathered opinions that we should do vaccinations sequentially after confirming the evidence for a more clear effect.” Of the 13 members of the Vaccination Committee who participated in the deliberation, 10 members also revealed that they agreed to the amendment to vaccination after further confirming the evidence.
353,039 medical staff including doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, pharmacists, etc. at high-risk medical institutions such as general hospitals and hospitals with many severely ill patients, and 78513 first responders such as 119 paramedics, epidemiological investigators, and quarantine officers. They will be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine starting on March 8 and March 22, respectively. The second vaccination begins in May. Hospitals have their own vaccinations at each institution, and corona responders are given vaccinations at public health centers.
As soon as 60,000 Pfizer vaccines introduced through’CoVax Facility’, a global vaccine co-purchase agreement, will be administered to 54,729 medical staff dedicated to corona treatment at the central and regional vaccination centers during next month. In order to minimize the gap in response to Corona 19, it is a principle to deliver the vaccine to each hospital and inoculate itself, but it is planned to visit the central and regional vaccination centers where the number of inoculations is less than 120.
Lebanese medical staff are holding a Pfizer vaccine on the 14th. Reuters = Yonhap News
As a result, the authorities aim to finish the first vaccination with AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine for about 760,000 people by the first quarter. The number of vaccination targets for the first quarter decreased by about 500,000 from the 1.3 million at the time of the announcement at the end of last month. “There is a side of delay in the case of COVAX quantity because it has to go through administrative procedures at the same time with many countries,” said Jeong Eun-kyung. “The number of vaccination targets has been adjusted according to the adjustment of the supply schedule.”
The fatality rate needs to be lowered,
The government has announced that it will start vaccinations for the elderly in nursing homes within two quarters, but if additional clinical information is not available around the end of March as expected, vaccinations for the elderly may continue without a promise. There are also criticisms that the goal of vaccination for the elderly is to protect at-risk groups by lowering the mortality rate.
Jeong Jae-hoon, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University’s Gil Hospital, said, “In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the evidence for its effectiveness is lacking, and it is not a safety issue, but rather it encourages distrust.” To protect the public from the 4th and 5th outbreaks, I need a quick vaccination, but it could be a problem.”
Kim Mo-ran, a professor of preventive medicine at the Graduate School of National Cancer Center, said, “It is possible to prevent infections caused by workers to some extent, but there is still a risk of infecting residents and spreading them in the facility.”
Ki-Seok Jeong, a professor of respiratory medicine at Hallym University Sungsim Hospital (former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) also said, “The clinical results of AstraZeneca may not be available in March. “If the target number of patients is full, the study will end. If not, it will take time for the second vaccination, even if it is decided at that time. However, if the 4th epidemic begins and spreads in nursing hospitals, people who die unfairly It can happen.”
Elderly people in nursing homes may need other vaccines if the US clinical results do not fully confirm the effectiveness. The vaccines that can be introduced in the second quarter are Janssen, Modena, and NovaVax vaccines.
As vaccinations of about 370,000 people are postponed to the second quarter, there are concerns that overload may occur at the front-line vaccination site. Regarding this, Jung said, “Although the crowd follows, various vaccination institutions will be mobilized to prepare systematically.”
Vaccination recommended by WHO, excluding the elderly Why
The government’s decision to exclude older people is also contrary to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO’s immunization advisory group said on the 10th (local time) that adults over 18 years of age should be allowed to use the AstraZeneca vaccine without age restrictions.
AstraZeneca vaccine. AP=Yonhap News
Some point out that the problem was from the fact that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety initially allowed the AstraZeneca vaccine and stated that doctors should carefully decide on vaccination for the elderly after judging the benefit of the caution. Because of this, there was a controversy in the medical community to take over responsibility, and the decision was made because of fear that there would be friction with the medical staff from the start.
Kim Shin-woo, a professor of infectious medicine at Kyungpook National University Hospital, said, “It seems that the people who make policy decisions have been conscious of the blame.” Professor Jeong Jae-hoon pointed out, “From the perspective of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the expression was used to not take responsibility, and it was judged according to the position of the disease administration, so it was clearly revealed that there was no department to be responsible.”
“I feel very sorry for the quarantine authorities for delaying vaccination,” said Eun-kyung Jeong, head of the general manager. “When looking at the outbreaks of nursing hospitals and facilities, infections are much more common through workers living in the community. We believe that there will be an effect of blocking the influx of infection, and we will carry out quarantine management more thoroughly until the vaccination for inpatients and hospitalized patients is completed.” Regarding the concern about disruption of group immunity in November, he said, “We believe that some adjustments to the vaccination plan in February and March do not significantly affect the formation of group immunity in November.”
Reporters Hwang Soo-yeon and Lee Woo-rim [email protected]