Chinanews, October 23. According to Korean media reports, as of 1 pm on the 23rd local time, the total number of deaths in South Korea after being vaccinated with influenza has reached 36.

South Korean authorities plan to announce whether the vaccination program will be suspended at around 7 pm local time.

　　The South Korean health authorities stated that they held a meeting with experts in the morning to discuss the causal relationship between the death cases and the vaccine. After discussing whether to continue the national vaccination program in the afternoon, they plan to announce the results at around 7pm local time on the 23rd.

　　In addition, detailed information such as the vaccine product or vaccination and the date of death of the dead cases will also be discussed and released in the afternoon of the same day.

　　Of the 25 deaths counted as of 4 pm on the 22nd, local time, there are more people over 60 years old, accounting for 22 people.

From a regional perspective, Gyeongsangbuk-do has the most.

　　Since October 16, a 17-year-old teenager in Incheon City died after being vaccinated with influenza, and similar cases in South Korea have continued to increase.

　　On the 22nd, the South Korean health department had stated that no deaths were found to be directly related to the vaccine and would continue to promote the free influenza vaccination program.

On the 23rd local time, the Department of Disease Management plans to convene a "Vaccination Victims Investigation Team Meeting" and a "Vaccination Special Committee" to check the status of vaccination and seek countermeasures.

　　According to previous reports, South Korea will expand its influenza vaccination program in 2020 and intend to provide free vaccination to approximately 19 million teenagers and elderly people.

When the plan was launched at the end of September, it was discovered that during the delivery of about 5 million doses of free vaccines, the whole process of refrigeration failed to comply with the specifications, so it was suspended for three weeks and restarted on October 13.

So far, 8.3 million people have been vaccinated, and a total of 350 people have reported adverse reactions.

　　The influenza vaccine used in the Korean free vaccination program is supplied by five pharmaceutical companies, namely the local GC Pharmaceutical Company, SK Biotech, Yiyang Pharmaceutical Company, France's Sanofi Group, and British GlaxoSmithKline.

Distributors include South Korea's LG Chemical Company and Boryeong Pharmaceutical Company.