South Korea's COVID-19 Cases Surge to 444 on Wednesday Amid Vaccination Campaign

Strategic Insights -

The country's daily coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Wednesday, driven by sporadic cluster infections, despite a steady rollout of its vaccination campaign. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 444 new COVID-19 cases, including 426 local infections, raising the total caseload to 90,816. The country added six more deaths from COVID-19, increasing the total to 1,612, with a fatality rate of 1.78 percent.

Key Takeaways:

  • The country's vaccination campaign, launched last Friday, has administered shots to a total of 87,428 people over the past five days, with an additional 63,644 receiving vaccinations on Tuesday.
  • AstraZeneca's vaccine accounted for 85,904 vaccinations, while Pfizer's took up 1,524, with the country's COVID-19 vaccination rate currently at 0.17 percent.
  • Nearly 28 percent of inoculation priority groups, including workers and patients at nursing homes, have been inoculated with AstraZeneca's vaccine, while 2.71 percent of people scheduled to receive Pfizer's vaccine have received their shots.
  • Gyeonggi Province had the largest number of vaccinated people with 16,390, followed by South Gyeongsang Province with 8,778 and Seoul with 8,345.
  • Health authorities are investigating two suspected cases of anaphylactoid reaction, which has similar symptoms to anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction after immunization, but have yet to find a causal relationship between the vaccination and such adverse events.
  • The country extended the current social distancing rules for another two weeks through March 14, with the greater Seoul area under Level 2 and other regions under Level 1.5, with private gatherings of five or more people banned.
  • The country aims to achieve herd immunity by November, with over 2.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to be supplied to South Korea by May under the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project.

Statistics:

  • The country reported 444 new COVID-19 cases, including 426 local infections, raising the total caseload to 90,816.
  • The country added six more deaths from COVID-19, increasing the total to 1,612, with a fatality rate of 1.78 percent.
  • The country has carried out 6,716,203 COVID-19 tests, including 34,227 from the previous day.
  • 11,000 hospital beds are currently available to accommodate COVID-19 patients, with 558 reserved for those who are critically ill.
  • 209 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, with 204 of them being mild symptoms.

Sources:

  • Yonhap News Agency (04 March 2021)
  • Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)
  • World Health Organization (WHO)