South Korea fully vaccinates 70% of its population against COVID-19

On Saturday, South Korean authorities announced that it has achieved its goal of vaccinating 70% of its population. The country has achieved its target before the scheduled time. A total of 35.94 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, ANI reported citing Yonhap news agency.

70% population fully vaccinated

According to Korea's Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), 70% of the population of 51.3 million people have received both shots of COVID-19 vaccine. The authorities in South Korea began vaccinating its citizens in February. The country also plans to ease COVID-19 restrictions at the start of November.

By early November, the government is planning to introduce "Living with COVID-19" which means that COVID-19 will be treated as an infectious respiratory disease, reported Yonhap news agency. Authorities will decide on the plan to vaccinate 85% of the population in the next week. Booster shots have not been introduced in the country yet, however, the discussion over the booster jabs have begun in South Korea.

COVID-19 situation in South Korea

According to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, as on 23 October, the country reported 1508 COVID cases taking the overall tally of confirmed cases to 350,476. 20 new deaths have been reported which brought the fatalities due to COVID to 2745. The total number of people who have been released from quarantine has reached 322,536. 

Companies to resume face-to-face meetings 

Companies in South Korea have decided to resume face-to-face meetings and overseas business trips. As the government has been preparing for a 'phased recovery of daily life with corona' from November, the companies have decided to start face to face meetings. The employees work from home will also be reduced, reported ANI. The companies like Hyundai, Samsung and Hanwha Group have announced new guidelines in order to resume face-to-face meetings.

According to the new guidelines introduced by Samsung Electronics, people going on business trips need to obtain permission from the management support office. After the overseas business trip, if the employee tests negative, 14 days quarantine is not needed. They also introduced face-to-face meetings in the office and meetings will be limited to 10 people. Hyundai Motor Group announced that they will allow face-to-face meetings only for fully vaccinated people. Hanwha Group also decided to allow face-to-face meetings of less than eight people based on quarantine guidelines.  

(Inputs from ANI)

Image: AP