South Korea has set an ambitious goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its entire population of fifty-two million by September.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the first coronavirus vaccinations are slated to start next month, adding that it hopes to achieve herd immunity by November.

The Seoul government has already secured enough vaccine doses to inoculate fifty-six million people under the World Health Organization’s global vaccine COVAX Facility project and separate contracts with four drug firms overseas.  

In addition, the government is close to signing a contract to secure vaccine doses for twenty million people from U.S. drug manufacturer Novavax, according to South Korea’s local newswire Yonhap News Agency. 

In preparation of the massive inoculation program, the KDCA has already outlined who will receive the potentially life-saving vaccines first.

High-risk health-care workers at hospitals, sanatoriums, and nursing home facilities will get the first vaccines in the first quarter, while seniors aged sixty-five or older and those working at other medical facilities will get the shots in the second quarter, the KDCA announced.

In the third quarter, vaccines will be provided to individuals who suffer from chronic diseases, in addition to adults aged between nineteen and sixty-four.

The vaccination goal comes as South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases surpassed five hundred for the first time in ten days on Wednesday. The figure was sharply up from about three hundred fifty on Tuesday and four hundred forty on Monday. The total caseload now sits at more than seventy-six thousand, according to the latest data compiled by the KDCA.  

Local health authorities believe the significant rise in cases came from cluster infections at small private schools run by religious groups in Gwangju and Daejeon.

In response, government officials said a Christian missionary society has been ordered or advised to conduct coronavirus tests for people at all of its affiliated schools and facilities in the country. 

“Preemptive coronavirus tests will be administered to all groups and facilities related to (the schools). There haven't yet been reports of (those) people refusing to take the test,” said senior health official Yoon Tae-ho, per Yonhap.  

“A thorough epidemiological investigation has been underway, and all people exposed to infected students and instructors have been subject to the coronavirus test in cooperation with local governments.”  

South Korea also announced that it will extend its suspension of all direct flights arriving from Britain for two more weeks over concerns about a new coronavirus variant originating from there.  

As of Monday, the country has reported twenty-seven cases involving the new variants, including nineteen from the United Kingdom and five from South Africa.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.  

Image: Reuters