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| A pregnant woman receives a vaccine for COVID-19 at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, in this photo taken on Feb. 11. Reuters-Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
Korea is planning to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant women and minors aged between 12 and 17 in the fourth quarter of the year, amid the continued spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
"After having gone through consolation with experts, we are aiming to begin administering vaccine shots to pregnant women and those aged between 12 and 17 in the fourth quarter, after people aged between 18 and 49 receive first doses of vaccines," Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong announced, Monday.
Pregnant women will get vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna, and children between 12 and 17 will receive Pfizer, Jeong said.
The KDCA has so far excluded pregnant women and minors under the age of 18 from vaccinations, citing the lack of relevant data and experience from within and outside the country.
Lee Pil-ryang, who chairs the Board of the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said Sunday that the government had agreed with an opinion that calls for the need to advise pregnant women to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
He noted, however, that it remains uncertain how many pregnant women will want to be vaccinated, as many of them have been expressing anxiety over the possible impact of vaccines on the health of their babies.
In the United States, only 23 percent of pregnant women had received one or more doses of a coronavirus vaccine as of May, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that vaccines could be offered during pregnancy.
Lee said that it will be very hard for his organization to issue an official recommendation that pregnant women be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying, "Some pregnant women are very worried about the possible risks of the vaccines to their babies. It is not easy even for experts to persuade them medically."
Meanwhile, the KDCA said it would start to inoculate "booster shots" in the fourth quarter as well for people who have completed two doses of vaccination six months before. It said the authorities are coming up with detailed plans for the third shots.
