S. Korea begins vaccinating soldiers over 30 this week

▲ A soldier gets tested for the COVID-19 virus at a testing site in central Seoul on April 5, 2021. (Yonhap)

military-vaccines

S. Korea begins vaccinating soldiers over 30 this week

SEOUL, April 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will begin inoculating soldiers age 30 and over this week as the country accelerates its vaccination campaign, health authorities said Monday.

A total of some 126,000 soldiers age 30 and over will be inoculated with vaccines by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University starting on Wednesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

It marks the first time that members of the military will be included in the vaccination campaign that kicked off in late February, excluding medical personnel at military hospitals.

The plan also comes as the country began vaccinating a total of some 177,000 front-line workers such as police officers and firefighters earlier in the day.

The KDCA said elders between the ages of 70 and 74 will receive their first shots starting in late May as part of the country's first-half rollout campaign for senior citizens.

The authorities said they will put priority on immunizing elders as the vaccine rollout for younger adults is scheduled to begin in the summer.

The country's vaccination campaign has recently picked up steam, with more than 2.26 million people out of the country's 52 million population receiving their first jabs as of Sunday.

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