OFFICIALS PUT OFF ASTRAZENECA VACCINES

[Anchor Lead]

As doctors study the correlation between the AstraZeneca vaccines and blood clots, Korean health officials decided to put off AstraZeneca vaccination for those under age 60 for the time being, causing inevitable disruptions in the country’s vaccination plan.

[Pkg]

Korea’s vaccination response team decided to postpone AstraZeneca vaccination for those under the age of 60 for the time being. Under this pause, roughly 38,000 people have been put on hold for vaccination. The entire AstraZeneca vaccination schedule has also been pushed back. Starting today, vaccines were supposed to be administered to special education teachers, childcare instructors, school nurses, and nursing staff at childcare centers. The plan to vaccinate residents and workers of facilities for the disabled people due to start the day after tomorrow has also been postponed. Consequently, vaccination is delayed for about 142,000 people. As the European Medicines Agency announced that blood clots could be listed as a very rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Korean disease control authorities decided to study the side effect first before resuming vaccinations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved of the Janssen vaccine on the condition that the vaccine maker submit a final clinical report. The Janssen vaccine was shown to be safe and about 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a sample of roughly 40,000 subjects 18 or older in the United States. As of today, 94 additional cases of abnormal post-vaccination reactions were reported. Two of those cases ended in death and one case was diagnosed with thrombosis, prompting the health officials to look into the causal relationship.