S. Korea begins vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 from Thursday

오늘부터 소아 백신접종 시작…거리두기 조정안도 논의 Indeed... LONG COVID remains... a task... to be tackled... by authorities... worldwide. In the meantime... though... we focus... on the current infection... itself... and efforts... to contain it... on the local front. First... then... MIN-JUNG... let's begin... with... an assessment... of Korea's COVID-19 situation... as well as... that... of the globe... by the world health body. Sunny... the situation does appear to be improving compared to last week,... when South Korea reported the most number of infections in the world for the fourth-straight week. According to the WHO, South Korea logged more than 2-point-4 million cases over the latest seven day period,... by far the highest of any country. However, the good news is that weekly cases dropped 13 percent from the previous week. Looking at the broader picture, the number of global infections fell 14 percent on-week,... with around 10-million 800-thousand cases confirmed. Although new infections are on a downward trend worldwide,... that's not the case for COVID-19 deaths. The number of global deaths increased 43 percent on-week,.. with South Korea also seeing a 22 percent rise in the number of deaths. This could be explained by the fact... that fatalities typically lag behind infections and hospitalizations... by a few weeks. Meanwhile... here in Korea... COVID-19 inoculations... for children... are underway... this Thursday? That's right, Sunny. As of today,... Korea has started handing out the first vaccines for children aged five to eleven. Registration opened exactly a week ago,... and so far, only 1-point-3 percent of the eligible recipients have signed up. There appears to be a great deal of vaccine hesitancy... among parents of young children... over concerns of possible side effects. Still, health authorities are strongly advising children to get vaccinated,... especially those at high risk,... due to conditions like obesity and weak immune systems. And this is regardless of whether or not they were previously infected with COVID-19. However, shots are not recommended for healthy children... who have contracted COVID-19 in the past. Children can get vaccinated at around 1-thousand 2-hundred medical centers nationwide,... and they will be given smaller doses of the Pfizer vaccine... administered twice with an eight-week interval. And they must be accompanied by a legal guardian,... to ensure their safety. As of Wednesday,... close to 1-and-a-half million children in this age bracket contracted COVID-19... resulting in five deaths. Thursday's data also showed that... around half of Korea's population... of kindergarteners and elementary school children in the lower grades... have contracted COVID-19. Staying with vaccines. I hear... Korea's drug regulator is mulling over... the distribution... of fourth doses? Right, Sunny. This comes after the U.S. authorized second boosters of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for people aged fifty and above. Korean health authorities say that the latest decision in the U.S. will serve as a guidepost for our own strategy regarding the fourth doses. Korea is currently administering second boosters to patients at nursing hospitals and seniors with weakened immune systems. But a health official said Wednesday, that the country should consider administering fourth shots to ALL seniors in general,... to tackle the rise in severe cases and deaths among the elderly. As of Wednesday, they accounted for around 94 percent of all COVID-related deaths here in Korea. And a meeting by the U.S. FDA's advisory committee on vaccines is scheduled for next Wednesday,... where experts are expected to further discuss the future of booster shots in the U.S.... which may include their expansion to other ages. For now,... vaccinating healthy adults with a fourth dose remains controversial,... but the White House had mentioned on Tuesday,... that if at some point second boosters are recommended to the entire population,... additional funding would be needed. In fact,... U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday,... called on Congress to do more to fund the country's vaccination campaign,... and also secure additional vaccine supplies NOW,... as more are becoming eligible for additional booster shots. 79-year-old Biden himself got his fourth Pfizer dose on Wednesday,... just a day after authorities gave the green light for second Pfizer and Moderna booster shots. Biden also mentioned the potential need for new vaccines to deal with new variants,... stressing that additional funding would be needed to purchase those... #COVID19 #vaccination #children 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 News Center(YouTube) :    / newscenter_arirangtv   2022-03-31, 14:00 (KST)