New infections rebound to 400s, AstraZeneca vaccine rollout to continue

Seoul (South Korea), March 17: South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 Wednesday on increased virus tests and a continued rise in cluster infections, stoking woes over a resurgence down the road.
The country reported 469 more COVID-19 cases, including 452 local infections, raising the total caseload to 96,849, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 363 on Tuesday. During the first two days of this week, the daily virus cases stayed in the 300s on account of fewer tests over the weekend.
In order to sharply flatten the virus curve, health authorities plan to enhance infection prevention measures at public facilities in the greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's 52 million population.
The authorities will check 11,873 public facilities, such as manufacturing facilities that hire foreign workers, public baths and national parks, in greater Seoul till March 28.
A total of 621,734 people, including 18,283 the previous day, have been given COVID-19 vaccine shots.
AstraZeneca's vaccine accounted for 587,996, while Pfizer's took up 33,738.
Under the country's vaccination program starting on Feb. 26, a total of 12 million people will be vaccinated for the April-June period. Foreigners also will be inoculated under the program.
The country aims to achieve herd immunity by November.
A total of 9,003 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, though 8,898 of them were mild symptoms.
A total of 16 deaths after vaccinations have been reported so far, according to the KCDC. But the agency said there was no causal relationship between the 14 deaths and the vaccinations.
Despite reported side effects of AstraZeneca's vaccine in Europe, health authorities said that the rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will continue as there is no evidence suggesting correlation between vaccines manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University and reports of blood clots in some recipients.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), European Union's medicine regulator, is set to announce its review on the reported cases later this week.
KDCA chief Jeong Eun-kyeong said in a parliamentary committee meeting that among those who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca's vaccine, a suspected blood clot case was reported in the country.
Of the 452 locally transmitted cases, 120 came from Seoul and 182 were reported from Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. Incheon, 40 km west of Seoul, reported 21 more cases.
The number of imported cases came to 17, down from 18 the previous day. They included five from Hungary and three from Indonesia.
The country added eight more deaths, raising the total to 1,686. The number of patients with serious symptoms across the country reached 100, down from 103 the previous day.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries moved up 559 to 88,814.
Source: Yonhap