SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA) – South Korea said on Monday it had found no connection to the coronavirus vaccine and several deaths, which occured recently. It ordered nearly 100,000 foreign workers for testing after clusters surfaced in dormitories.
Health officials had been conducting probe into the deaths of eight people with underlying conditions of adverse reactions after getting a shot of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, however, said they found no evidence that the shots had a role to play in the same.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing, “We’ve tentatively concluded that it was difficult to establish any link between their adverse reaction after being vaccinated, and their deaths.”
South Koreans aged 65 or older were not being provided AstraZeneca’s vaccine after health regulators came to a conclusion that they required more data to confirm its efficacy among that age group.
However on Monday, Jeong said an expert panel had now put forth recommendations that older people be given the shots, and that the KDCA would soon make a final decision.
Several outbreaks in manufacturing and other industrial workplaces have pressured authorities to set out on inspections of 12,000 work sites with international workers, while multiple local governments ordered the testing of foreign workers in coming days.
“Their work environment and communal housing raise the danger of infection but it is difficult to find patients early because of their limited access to medical resources and testing, and the issue of illegal stay,” Jeong said.
Gyeonggi Province gave orders for the testing of about 85,000 foreign workers in the next two weeks, Vice Governor for Administrative Affairs Lee Yong-chul told a briefing.
At least 151 foreign residents in the Gyeonggi city of Dongducheon have recently turned COVID positive, though the reason for the outbreak is still not clear.
In Namyangju, another city in Gyeonggi, at least 124 foreigners had tested positive following an outbreak at a plastic manufacturing plant.
The industrial cities of Eumseong and Jincheon also ordered about 4,500 and 5,000 foreign residents respectively to be tested. Group infections had surfaced from a glass factory and a food processing company.
There was further scrutiny Working conditions for migrant workers in South Korea received new scrutiny after a woman from Cambodia was found dead living in a greenhouse in freezing winter temperatures late last year.
The number of Thai worker deaths touched a record annual high in 2020 – 122 as of mid-December, as per a recent report.