With the Covid-19 pandemic going on for more than a year, a recent survey of more than 2,000 people has revealed that only 0.27 percent of Koreans possessed an antibody for the virus.
Antibodies are the evidence that shows that a person has developed immunity after suffering an infectious disease.
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH), the investigation confirmed that only six out of the 2,248 people living in 16 provinces and large cities except Jeju had the antibody for the virus.
The health authorities collected samples from people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Survey to confirm the presence of antibodies. By region, the six people with confirmed antibodies broke down into four in Gyeonggi Province and one each in Seoul and South Gyeongsang Province. Two of them had previously tested positive for the virus, while the remaining four had never tested positive for the virus.
"The government has confirmed that the antibody retention rate due to Covid-19 infection is still low in Korea," a CDSCH official said. "Experts say that it is the result of proactive quarantine measures, such as preemptive inspections of epidemic areas and facilities."
The state vaccination program started to regain speed after the nation secured additional vaccines.
Korea has vaccinated 4,688,520 people – 2,649,352 with the AstraZeneca vaccine and 2,039,168 with Pfizer's vaccine – up a drastic 711,194 from the previous day. The figure accounts for 9.1 percent of the country's population.
Among them, about 60,200 people received AstraZeneca vaccines under a program implemented from Thursday, in which the government allows low-priority people to check leftover jabs resulting from no-shows and reserve for vaccination within the same day.
The government plans to allow people who have received their first jabs to take their masks off outdoors starting in July as its first step to normalize people's everyday lives.
On Friday, the nation confirmed 587 new cases, including 571 infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 138,898.
Three more people died of the Covid-19, raising the death toll to 1,946 with a fatality rate of 1.4 percent. A total of 128,761 people have returned to their daily life after complete recovery, up 581 from the previous day. The country has carried out 9,702,456 tests since Jan. 3 last year.