S.Korea's
vaccination drive picks up speed, little slow down in new infections
Send a link to a friend
[June 08, 2021]
By Sangmi Cha
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea injected
857,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Monday, setting a daily record in its
inoculation drive that took its vaccination rate to 16.4% for a first
dose, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)
showed.
|
Hitherto, a slow vaccine rollout due to global shortages and
shipment delays had complicated South Korea's efforts to subdue
latest wave of infections, after the country won plaudits last year
for using aggressive and high-tech contact tracing to quickly tamp
down on outbreaks.
But with the inoculation drive ramping up, South Korea said last
week that it expects to meet its vaccination target for the first
half of the year by inoculating up to 14 million people ahead of
schedule.
The government plans to vaccinate 70% of its 52 million population
by the third quarter, starting with kindergarten and primary school
teachers during summer break, with the aim of achieving herd
immunity before November.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/08/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
South Korea reported 454 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday,
bringing the total tally to 145,091 infections, with 1,975 deaths.
Half of the new cases were fuelled by gatherings of family and
friends, government figures showed.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/08/images/ads/current/graue_21ENCLAVE_060721.png) Daily new infections have held
stubbornly in a range of 400 to 700 for the past
few weeks, making the government pull back from
plans to relax social distancing rules.
Everyday interactions with family, friends and
co-workers at home and workplaces were among the
major risks of transmission, as were night spots
and karaoke bars, the KDCA said.
Authorities on Monday advised the public to take
two shorter vacations instead of a long one and
encouraged private and public companies to
stagger holidays for employees and extend the
holiday season to prevent crowding at tourist
destinations.
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/08/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png) |