On Monday, January 11, 2021, President Moon Jae In announced that everyone in South Korea will have access to free COVID19 vaccine as it has secured purchase agreements with various vaccine manufacturers.
The Korean government has been planning the logistics for the distribution of the vaccine which are expected to happen in February.
Currently, health care workers, citizens aged 65 and above, people aged 19-64 with chronic diseases are high in the preferential list.
On January 12, the KDCA or Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency released a schedule of priority for the country-wide inoculation. From February, the following will receive the vaccine:
| Level 1 | Senior citizens living in nursing hospitals and facilities | 566,000 |
| Level 2 | Workers in COVID19 hospitals, nursing facilities | 1,033,000 |
| Level 3 | COVID 19 first responders, public health workers | 92,000 |
| Level 4 | Senior citizens age 65 and above | 8,359,000 |
| Level 5 | Other healthcare workers | 352,000 |
| Level 6 | Adults 19-64 citizens with high risk chronic diseases | 6,027,000 |
| Level 7 | Adults 19-64 citizens with moderate risk chronic diseases | 5,684,000 |
| Level 8 | Citizens age 50-64 | 12,525,000 |
| Level 9 | Police, firefighters, soldiers | 745,000 |
| Level 10 | People who live with the elderly, chronically ill Electricity, water, and gas workers Childcare facility worrkers Prisoners and employees of correctional facilities | 64,000 156,000 675,000 20,000 |
Healthy adults aged 19-49 (22,664,000) will be vaccinated starting September. Note that CHILDREN ARE NOT IN THE LIST FOR VACCINATION.
Since the plan is still under review, the list may change.
The government is purchasing vaccines for 56 million people from Moderna, Astra Zeneca, JANSSEN, Pfizer, and COVAX.
Sources:
Healthy adults 19-64 will get vaccinated from September
Free vaccination starts next month