Essential Social Workers Including Military, Police, and Firefighters to Receive AZ Vaccine Starting from the 26th

Soldiers responsible for escorting are transporting the AstraZeneca vaccines that arrived at the Gwonseon-gu Public Health Center in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi Province last February. / Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Starting from the 26th, COVID-19 vaccinations will begin for essential social workers such as police, coast guard, and firefighters, as well as healthcare workers and 507,000 patients with chronic kidney disease.

Jung Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and Head of the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Task Force, stated at a regular briefing on the 19th, "Vaccinations using the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine are scheduled to begin on the 26th for healthcare workers, patients with chronic kidney disease, and essential social workers."

Among the vaccination targets, the inoculation for 173,000 essential social workers was originally planned for June but has been moved forward. Previously, the task force announced that vaccinations for 257,000 healthcare workers at clinics and pharmacies, as well as 77,000 patients with chronic kidney disease, would start at the end of this month, and now essential social workers have been added to this group.

Thus, a total of 507,000 people will be vaccinated, with pre-registration starting on the 19th and vaccinations commencing on the 26th. Among the essential social workers, 75% (129,000) are military personnel, who will be vaccinated by the Ministry of National Defense after identifying eligible individuals, with vaccinations conducted at military units and military hospitals.

In calculating the 507,000 vaccination targets, individuals under 30 years old were excluded due to concerns about rare thrombosis accompanied by thrombocytopenia.

In this context, some have pointed out that the vaccination schedule for essential social workers was moved forward to utilize the doses left unused after excluding those under 30 from the vaccination targets.

Regarding this, Director Jung explained, "Vaccinations for essential social workers using the AstraZeneca vaccine were already planned, and doses had been allocated. The schedule was only partially adjusted, and the overall second-quarter vaccination plan has not significantly changed."