As the COVID-19 vaccination for people in their 50s started nationwide today (26th), it is expected that the pace of vaccination, which has been somewhat slow, will pick up again.



However, as the type of vaccine that next week's recipients will receive has not yet been determined, some prospective recipients have expressed concerns about the lack of information.



According to the Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team, vaccination for about 3.04 million people aged 55 to 59 years (born 1962-1966) started today, and about 3.13 million people aged 50 to 54 years old (born 1967-1971) are vaccinated. It starts on August 16th.



Looking at the reservation status, 6,172,63 people, or 84% of those in their 50s, completed their reservations.



Everyone in their 50s gets the mRNA vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna.



Vaccines in their 50s, who received the vaccination five months after the first vaccination in Korea on February 26, expressed their expectation that they will be able to escape from the fear of being infected with COVID-19.



However, the type of vaccine to be vaccinated next week has not yet been confirmed.



The promotion team said that as the vaccine supply schedule became unstable, it would be individually notified on a weekly basis which vaccines those in their 50s would receive.



Those who receive the vaccine in the first week (7.26~31) of the inoculation period are usually vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine, but those vaccinated in metropolitan areas such as Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi get the Pfizer vaccine.



This is in response to prioritization of recently arrived Pfizer vaccines to metropolitan areas, which are close to delivery.



However, the promotion team made an exception to vaccinate Moderna at 251 consigned medical institutions in the metropolitan area that only vaccinate Moderna.



There are also some complaints about the sudden increase in the interval between the first and second doses of Pfizer vaccine from 3 weeks to 4 weeks.



In response, the promotion team explained that in July and August, both Moderna and Pfizer were used, so the inoculation interval of Pfizer was increased to 4 weeks like Moderna to increase the convenience of vaccination.



In addition to the vaccination of people in their 50s, about 100,000 unvaccinated people whose vaccinations were postponed or canceled due to health reasons or medical institution errors among those aged 60 to 74 years (born 1947-1961) from May to June will also start today. Get vaccinated with Pfizer vaccine.



The first vaccination schedule for all people in their 50s and those aged 60 to 74 will be completed at once on August 28th.



As of 00:00 today, a total of 16,893,124 people in Korea have received the first dose, which is 32.9% of the total population (51,349,116 as of December last year).



(Photo = Yonhap News)