COVID-19 Vaccination Rate Among Elderly Over 40% "Must Get Vaccinated as Weather Gets Chilly"

Yonhap News

More than 4 out of 10 elderly people aged 65 and over have completed their COVID-19 vaccination.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced on the 18th that as of the 15th, the COVID-19 vaccination rate for those aged 65 and over was 41.5%, about 6 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The vaccination rate was about 30% for those aged 65 to 69 and close to 50% for those aged 70 and above.

The COVID-19 positivity rate is on a declining trend.

According to the KDCA's weekly respiratory virus report, in the 45th week (November 3?9), the COVID-19 virus detection rate reported by 106 medical institutions and 18 provincial health and environment research institutes was 5.2%, down from 5.6% in the 44th week.

The detection rates over the past four weeks were 6.9% in the 42nd week, 5.1% in the 43rd week, 5.6% in the 44th week, and 5.2% in the 45th week, showing a slight increase in the 44th week before returning to a downward trend.

A KDCA official stated, "Although the COVID-19 positivity rate is decreasing, the weather is getting colder, which is a period when respiratory infectious diseases can generally increase." He added, "For those aged 65 and over or immunocompromised individuals, COVID-19 infection can lead to severe complications, so we once again emphasize completing vaccination within this month."

The national COVID-19 vaccination targets include elderly people aged 65 and over, immunocompromised individuals aged 6 months and older, and high-risk groups such as residents and inpatients of infection-vulnerable facilities.

Immunocompromised infants and young children (aged 6 months to 4 years) have been able to receive the pediatric Pfizer JN.1 vaccine since the 11th of this month.

Elderly people aged 65 and over can receive the JN.1 vaccine (Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax), which is effective against the recently circulating COVID-19 variants, simultaneously with the influenza (flu) vaccine.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.