Coronavirus: South Korea finds no link between deaths and vaccine; Singapore Airlines plans travels pass
- Health officials said they found no evidence that the AstraZeneca shot played a role in the deaths of eight people with underlying conditions
- Meanwhile, Japan’s vaccine campaign has been hampered by a lack of supply and a shortage of speciality syringes
Health officials had been investigating the deaths of eight people with underlying conditions who had adverse reactions after receiving AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, but said they found no evidence that the shots played a role.
“We’ve tentatively concluded that it was difficult to establish any link between their adverse reaction after being vaccinated, and their deaths,” Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
South Korea began vaccinating residents and workers at nursing homes and other at-risk individuals at the end of February, with 316,865 people having received their first shots as of Sunday.
Several outbreaks in manufacturing and other industrial workplaces prompted authorities to begin inspecting 12,000 work sites with international workers, while multiple local governments ordered foreign workers to be tested in coming days.
Gyeonggi province ordered about 85,000 foreign workers to get tested in the next two weeks, Vice Governor for Administrative Affairs Lee Yong-chul told a briefing.