Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun says the safety of COVID-19 vaccines is being proven with no reports of major side effects in the four days since the rollout of the national vaccination campaign.

Chung said Tuesday during an interagency meeting that 23,086 people had already received their first shot, with 156 cases of abnormal reactions reported that all turned out to be mild symptoms that went away quickly, "practically validating the safety of vaccines."

He vowed more efforts to accelerate the speed of vaccinations.

The prime minister also voiced concern over the spread of fake news about COVID vaccine safety, pledging to stern action against misinformation that undermines South Korea's antivirus efforts.

The country began its vaccination campaign last Friday by administering the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to health workers and patients under the age of 65 at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, followed by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for frontline health care workers.

The government has said it aims to achieve herd immunity by November.

Please send comments to tbsefmnews@gmail.com
copyright © tbs. Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.