Seoul prepares to start COVID vaccination campaign

On Thursday Seoul started preparing for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, which is scheduled to begin on Friday. Seoul's Songpa District vaccination center said it has received 500 doses of the vaccine, which will be delivered to local nursing hospitals to vaccinate high-priority groups.

South Korea’s top infectious disease expert has warned that vaccines will not end the coronavirus pandemic quickly. The country aims to vaccinate more than 70% of its population by November. But a safe return to mask-less normalcy is highly unlikely in 2021, due to the growing spread of virus variants and other factors, said experts earlier in the week.

The first available doses of vaccines rolled off a production line in the southern city of Andong, where local pharmaceutical company SK Bioscience manufactures vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Separately, 55,000 doctors, nurses and other health professionals treating COVID-19 patients will begin receiving shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday.

(Image Credit: AP)