SEOUL – South Korea on Friday administered its first available shots of coronavirus vaccines to people at long-term care facilities, launching a mass immunization campaign that health authorities hope will restore some level of normalcy by the end of the year.
The rollout of vaccines come at a critical time for the country, which has seen its hard-won gains against the virus get wiped out by a winter surge and is struggling to mitigate the pandemic’s economic shock that decimated service sector jobs.
More than 5,260 residents and workers at 213 nursing homes, mental institutions and rehab centers will receive their first shots of a two-dose vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Friday.