Jeong Eun-kyung "Emergency Briefing Tomorrow Morning on COVID-19 Vaccinations for People in Their 50s... Adjustment of Pre-Reservations"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] On the 14th, Jeong Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), will hold an emergency briefing to announce measures related to the early closure of the COVID-19 vaccination pre-registration for those aged 55 to 59 the previous day.

The KDCA announced on the 13th via text message that "a briefing regarding the pre-registration for vaccination of people in their 50s will be held at 10 a.m. on the 14th."

At the briefing, Commissioner Jeong is expected to re-announce the additional reservation schedule for those aged 55 to 59 and the pre-registration method for vaccination of people in their 50s.

The KDCA decided to resume additional reservations for the 55 to 59 age group on the 19th after pre-registration was closed early the previous day. However, on the 19th, new pre-registrations for vaccination of those aged 50 to 54 will be conducted simultaneously, raising concerns about a "second connection chaos."

Initially, vaccination reservations for the 55 to 59 age group were scheduled to be held over six days from the 12th to the 17th of this month, but all 1.85 million vaccine doses prepared for the first day, the 12th, were fully booked, leading to an early closure. The reservation for people in their 50s caused significant inconvenience due to connection delays and site crashes as many users tried to book at the same time on the first day.

Accordingly, the government is readjusting the pre-registration schedule for those aged 55 to 59 and is actively considering sequential reservations to allow for distributed booking to prevent recurrence. Previously, the KDCA stated that it is making efforts to advance the resumption of pre-registration for the 55 to 59 age group on the 19th as much as possible.

Additionally, the briefing will explain the additional vaccination reservation period for those aged 60 to 74, who had difficulties making reservations due to reasons such as omission from the list.