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A health worker administers a COVID-19 vaccine to a man on Monday at a vaccination center in Seoul. (Yonhap News)

Disease control authorities pleaded with the South Korean public to take part actively in the COVID-19 vaccination drive, noting that an analysis of confirmed cases since inoculation began in February showed 91% of them to have emerged among unvaccinated people.

In a briefing Monday, Son Young-rae, director of the Central Disaster Management Headquarters social strategy group, said, “With the reports about ‘breakthrough infections,’ people may become hesitant or avoidant toward vaccines because they believe they lack efficacy, but even if there were two thousand and however many hundred breakthrough infections, that’s still [only] 0.03% of all vaccinated people.”

“If we analyze patients diagnosed between February and August, 91% of them have been unvaccinated, 7% have not been fully vaccinated [having received only their first dose], and 2% have been fully vaccinated,” he said.

“Overseas, they are calling the fourth wave a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated,’” he noted.

As of Aug. 12, South Korea’s cumulative number of breakthrough infections — in which patients tested positive after being fully vaccinated — stood at 2,111. The number amounts to roughly 0.03% of the 7,080,356 people considered fully vaccinated as of that date.

Son said, “An analysis of South Korean data for May to July shows that when people were fully vaccinated, that resulted in 85% prevention of severe symptoms and 97% prevention of death.”

“Breakthrough infections among the vaccinated are also uncommon, but even when one occurs, severe symptoms and death are reduced to a minimum,” he said.

Noting that people who have received at least one vaccine dose “now account for more than 50% of all South Koreans,” he said that the “full vaccination rate will increase rapidly with the administration of second doses that is underway for seniors aged 60 to 74.”

“Hopefully, people will bear this in mind and take part actively in getting vaccinated,” he added.

According to the COVID-19 vaccination response team, 50.5% of South Koreans had received a first vaccine dose and 22.5% had been fully vaccinated as of the end of the day Sunday.

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]