Korea has millions of extra vaccine doses

The government lifted the 6,000 won ($5) price ceiling on Covid home test kits on Tuesday, enabling pharmacies and convenience stores to set their own prices. [YONHAP]

Korea is considering a new Covid-19 vaccination program in case of a resurgence of infections in autumn and winter, authorities said Tuesday.

"The effect of Covid-19 vaccines has been maintained until now, but it may weaken,” Lee Sang-won, head of the epidemiological investigations team at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

“And in autumn, another virus wave may arrive due to seasonal effects.”

He added, “We are considering adjusting shipment dates in consideration of expiry dates and thinking of other ways to utilize the vaccines.”

Lately, millions of doses of vaccines were found to have expired and been discarded.

According to data released by Rep. Suh Jung-sook of the opposition People Power Party (PPP), a total of 2,332,889 vaccine doses have been disposed of in Korea through March 22. Of these, 641,368 were discarded this year.

Korea had a high vaccination rate of 86.7 percent as of Monday midnight, and there is less incentive to get vaccinated since the ending of the vaccine pass system and an erratic decline in new Covid cases.

With new variants of the coronavirus continuing to emerge, some people also question the efficacy of boosters using existing vaccines.

As of March 27, 16.26 percent of breakthrough infections were reported among people who received a third vaccine dose, also called a booster shot. People who contracted the virus after a fourth dose accounted for 5.95 percent.

In the meantime, about 145.48 million doses are scheduled to arrive in Korea within this year, raising the need for the government to come up with a use for them.

Asked about donating vaccines to developing countries, Lee hesitated to give an immediate answer, saying “it’s a policy that needs to be discussed with other countries.”

While the government believes Korea has passed the peak of its Omicron wave, the number of Covid-19 cases rebounded to over 200,000 on Tuesday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 266,135 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day’s case count.

Tuesday’s cases decreased by 81,355, or down 23.4 percent, from last Tuesday.

The basic reproduction number (R0) for Covid-19, or the average number of people that one infected person will pass the virus to, fell below 1 on Tuesday to 0.91 for the first time in 11 weeks. If the R0 is less than 1, meaning each infectious individual infects fewer than one other individual, the disease will die out.

However, indicators related to high-risk groups are still worrisome, as the percentage of patients aged 60 or older of the total increased to 19.2 percent.

Critical cases remained above 1,100 for four days in a row at 1,121, while 209 more virus-related deaths were added on Tuesday.

The KDCA said the Omicron variant was detected in 100 percent of new infections — both domestic and overseas — last week. In particular, the Stealth Omicron, a subvariant of Omicron, accounted for 67.7 percent of domestic cases, up 11.4 percentage points from the week before. Among imported cases, it increased by 5.6 percentage points to 76.7 percent.

While Stealth Omicron — also known as BA.2 subvariant — has clearly became the dominant Covid-19 strain, health authorities believe Korea’s downtrend of cases will likely to continue.

"It is true the BA.2 subvariant is highly contagious, while the virus progression in Korea is different from that of countries abroad,” said health official Lee, adding, “in countries abroad, the BA.2 type emerged after the Omcrion wave ended, but in Korea, they are spreading together.”

Lee continued, “Given a considerable number of indicators, we believe the current decline in cases is more likely to continue for the time being rather than the possibility that BA.2 type will turn [Covid-19 cases] upward again.”

Authorities also confirmed that another new Covid-19 variant, XE, which is a combination of the original BA.1 Omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2, has not yet been found in Korea. So far, the XE variant has been detected in Taiwan, Britain and Thailand.

"XE may spread slightly faster than BA.2, but as the number of confirmed XE sequenced cases is small, further monitoring and analysis are needed," Lee said.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]