Leftover vaccine programme: Doses hard to find, say South Koreans
South Korea today (May 27) launched a programme to help non-priority people receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines made available from cancelled appointments, but the so-called leftover vaccines can hardly be found in reality, many citizens said.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) started a test operation of the search-and-reservation system for AstraZeneca vaccines available from appointment no-shows through the country's largest web portal Naver and top message app KakaoTalk at 1pm, Yonhap news agency reported.
The test operation was...
South Korea today (May 27) launched a programme to help non-priority people receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines made available from cancelled appointments, but the so-called leftover vaccines can hardly be found in reality, many citizens said.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) started a test operation of the search-and-reservation system for AstraZeneca vaccines available from appointment no-shows through the country's largest web portal Naver and top message app KakaoTalk at 1pm, Yonhap news agency reported.
The test operation was launched as authorities started to offer AstraZeneca shots to South Koreans aged 65 to 74, one of the priority groups, on the same day.
The online search system is aimed at minimising the waste of remaining doses from missed appointments amid weak public trust in AstraZeneca vaccines. One AstraZeneca vaccine bottle contains 10 doses. If they are not used within up to six hours after opening, the remaining doses should be discarded.
Anybody older than 30 who is not yet officially eligible to receive vaccine shots due to limited national supplies can search for leftover doses via Naver or KakaoTalk and sign up to receive them during the day.
The KDCA offers real-time information on vaccination reservations and no-shows to the two companies.
However, many citizens across the country complained about the difficulties of finding leftover vaccines even several hours after the launch of the programme.
Furthermore, the KakaoTalk search-and-reservation service was interrupted for a few hours due to a system failure on its launch day.
Seoul citizens searched for leftover vaccines late Thursday afternoon but were told all hospitals and vaccination centers in the capital and surrounding Gyeonggi Province had not a single dose left over.
The situation was similar in other regions.
"I thought it would be easy to find leftover vaccines due to many people's fears of vaccination side effects, but there was not a single leftover dose available today," said a 39-year-old citizen in the southeastern city of Pohang.
Some reported spotting leftover vaccines, though briefly.
A 34-year-old resident in Daegu, southeast South Korea, said he happened to find a hospital declaring 10 leftover doses available for reservation, but they disappeared an hour later while he was still considering.
There were similar complaints on online news stories and social media from those unable to find leftover vaccines.
The programme, still in its pilot stage, will run for two weeks and will officially kick off on June 9.
Medical officials offered various explanations for the shortage of leftover vaccines.
"Those who made reservations for the first day of vaccination seem to have a strong determination to get inoculated and posted a very low no-show rate," said an official at a Busan hospital, adding that his hospital recorded not a single no-show appointment today.
Some officials attributed the scarcity of leftover vaccines to the overbooking of appointments.
- Bernama
