South Korea, Hong Kong begin vaccination drive

SEOUL: South Korea administered its first available shots of coronavirus vaccines to people at long-term care facilities on Friday, launching a mass immunisation campaign that health authorities hope will restore some level of normalcy by the end of the year.

The rollout of vaccines come at a critical time for the country, which has seen its hard-won gains against the virus get wiped out by a winter surge and is struggling to mitigate the pandemic’s economic shock that decimated service sector jobs.

“I felt very anxious over the past year, but I feel more secure now after receiving the vaccine,” said nursing home worker Lee

Gyeong- soon, who received her shot at a public health centre in northern Seoul.

Hong Kong began administering its first COVID- 19 vaccines to the public, kicking off its programme offering free vaccinations to all 7.5 million residents. People age 60 and older and health care workers are among the some 2.4 million people currently prioritised to receive vaccines at community centers and outpatient clinics across Hong Kong. The government said registrations for the first two weeks of the programme are full.

Philippines’ health ministry on Friday reported 2,651 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily increase in cases in more than four months, and 46 additional deaths.

In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 571,327, while confirmed deaths were at 12,247.

Meanwhile, a senior cabinet official apologised for his controversial plan for more covonavirus vaccines from the United Kingdom and Germany in exchange for their exemption from the limited deployment of Filipino nurses but insisted that his critics, especially lawmakers, did not know what they were talking about.

In different media interviews, Secretary Silvestre Bello of the Department of Labor and Deployment denied such plan existed as he explained he just wanted to ensure that the Filipino nurses and other frontline health workers received their COVID-19 shots before they left for the UK and Germany.

“If they felt hurt, I apologise. But that was not my plan. So many people are criticising me when they don’t know the real picture,” Bello said in a TV interview, referring to a report that he already asked the UK for more COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for its exemption from the maximum limit of 5,000 nurses set by the government per year, who are allowed to work abroad.