GOV'T ON RAISING TARGET HERD IMMUNITY

[Anchor Lead]

The government is considering raising the target herd immunity threshold from the current 70 percent. Only 0.33 percent of Korea’s population has COVID-19 antibodies. Health authorities are urging the public to get immunized to achieve herd immunity.

[Pkg]

People at this vaccination site are waiting to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Most of them are in the 50 to 54 age group that began inoculations yesterday. A growing number of people feel a sense of urgency to get their shots because of the highly contagious Delta variant.

[Soundbite] Cho Myung-yang(Seoul resident) : "I wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible, because it’s the only way to protect myself from COVID-19. I think it was the right choice. I am rest assured now."

Hospitals are crowded with vaccine recipients all day long.

[Soundbite] Park Sang-soo(Hospital staff) : "We had 4-5 times more patients than usual."

Some 3.1 million people in their early 50s are eligible for immunization. The vaccine reservation rate in this age group has surpassed 82 percent. They will be provided with their first shots through the end of August. A study conducted on 1200 people has found that only 0.33 percent had formed COVID-19 antibodies. This means mass vaccination is the only way to achieve herd immunity.

[Soundbite] Kwon Jun-wook(Central Disease Control HQs) : "The percentage of people who have antibodies is still low in Korea. It’s important that many people get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity."

Health officials say the percentage of vaccinated people should be higher in order to achieve herd immunity. Vaccinating the initially proposed 70 percent of the country’s population is not enough to ward off the highly contagious virus variants.

[Soundbite] Kim Ki-nam(COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force) : "The primary goal is getting 70 percent of the population vaccinated. After that we will consider additional measures according to the spread of virus variants."

Health authorities say the Lambda variant, which has been found in 31 countries, is becoming a dominant strain in South America, and an investigation into its contagiousness and vaccine efficacy is currently underway.