Korea received the first batch of Moderna's bivalent vaccine, a vaccine developed to fight Omicron subvariants, on Thursday.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Korea has received 805,000 out of the 1.61 million doses planned for introduction via Incheon International Airport. The remaining 806,000 doses will arrive on Saturday.
The health authorities’ detailed winter vaccination plan using the bivalent vaccine will come out at the end of this month.
Moderna said it found no serious adverse drug reactions in the recipients. Adverse events such as injection site pain and fatigue appeared temporarily but at a level similar to that of the existing vaccine, the company said.
After comparing the immune response of the neutralizing antibody between the bivalent and the conventional vaccine, Moderna confirmed that the amount of neutralizing antibody formed in the bivalent vaccine was 1.22 times higher for the original Covid-19 virus and 1.75 times higher for the Omicron variant.
With the introduction of the Moderna booster shot, the KDCA said Korea would provide leftover conventional Covid-19 vaccines to other countries.
Since 2021, South Korea has donated about five million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to nine countries.
The KDCA also said it will begin administering the influenza vaccine to high-risk groups -- children aged six months through 13 years old, pregnant mothers, and seniors over 65 -- starting next Wednesday at some 20,000 hospitals and medical facilities nationwide.
The vaccination plan follows recent concerns from health authorities about a possible twindemic -- the dual threat of a severe flu outbreak on top of the Covid-19 pandemic -- in the fall and winter of this year.
Children, who have never received a flu vaccine, must receive two doses for protection, health authorities added.
On Thursday, The KDCA confirmed 71,471 new Covid-19 infections, including 352 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,264,470.
The country reported 72 deaths, putting the death toll at 27,665, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent. The number of critically ill patients remained high at 491, down 16 from the previous day.
According to the KDCA, about 44.67 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.57 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.3 million had their second booster shots.