Adolescents aged 12-17 will be able to receive Pfizer’s bivalent Covid-19 vaccine that has increased efficacy against the Omicron variant from next week.
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, the target of the winter booster vaccination will be expanded from the current 18 years of age or older to 12 years of age or older from next Monday.
Quarantine officials stressed that they have decided to expand the age group to protect young people's health in a situation where a resurgence of Covid-19 continues in the winter and various respiratory diseases, including influenza, are on the rise.
Notably, the government strongly recommended vaccination for high-risk adolescents, such as immunocompromised persons and those with underlying diseases, who are at a high risk of severe illness and death when infected with the coronavirus.
The quarantine authorities plan to prepare and distribute a guide to physicians so that these high-risk groups can receive vaccination recommendations from doctors at the hospitals they usually visit.
The current vaccination rate for the population between the ages of 12 and 17 is 66.5 percent for primary vaccination and 11.5 percent for the first booster shot. The first booster shot rate is significantly lower than those in their 20s (60.8 percent) and 30s (59.8 percent).
Quarantine officials stressed that health experts who participated in an advisory committee before the decision to expand the vaccination age stressed that adolescents require prompt vaccination as a considerable amount of time has elapsed since the start of the first booster shot for the high-risk youth group, and the safety of the bivalent vaccine for adolescents is not different from that of adults.
The health experts further explained that the EU, the U.K., Canada, and Japan are also implementing bivalent vaccination measures for adolescents 12 years of age or older.
Advance reservations and same-day vaccinations will begin on Monday, and scheduled vaccinations will begin on Dec. 19.
The government plans to inoculate the age group using Pfizer's BA.1-based and BA.4/5-based bivalent vaccines approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for 12 years of age or older.
However, if the adolescent has a history of severe allergic reactions to the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines or if mRNA vaccination is not desired, they can choose to receive Novavax's recombinant gene vaccine instead.
On Friday, Korea added 62,734 new Covid-19 infections, including 50 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 27,611,555, according to the KDCA.
The nation also reported 67 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 30,975. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 442, up seven from the previous day, the KDCA said.