SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Monday it had found no link between the coronavirus vaccine and several recent deaths, as it ordered about 100,000 foreign workers to be tested after clusters emerged in the dormitories.
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 have provisionally concluded that it was difficult to establish any link between his adverse reaction after vaccination and his deaths,” the director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) told a briefing. Jeong Eun-kyeong.
South Korea began vaccinating residents and residential workers for the elderly and others at risk in late February, with 316,865 people receiving their first shots as of Sunday.
South Koreans aged 65 and over were not given the AstraZeneca vaccine after health regulators concluded that more data was needed to confirm its effectiveness in this age group.
But on Monday, Jeong said a group of experts had now recommended that the shooting be given to seniors and that the KDCA would soon make a final decision.
COMMUNAL HOUSING
Several outbreaks in manufacturing and other industrial jobs prompted authorities to begin inspecting 12,000 jobs with international workers, while several local governments ordered foreign workers to be tested in the coming days.
“Their work environment and community housing increase the risk of infection, but it is difficult to find patients early because of their limited access to medical resources and tests, and the problem of illegal stay,” said Jeong.
Gyeonggi Province ordered about 85,000 foreign workers to be tested in the next two weeks, Deputy Governor of Administrative Affairs Lee Yong-chul said in a briefing.
At least 151 foreign residents in Dongducheon City, Gyeonggi, have tested positive recently, although it is not yet clear what caused the outbreak.
In Namyangju, another city in Gyeonggi, at least 124 foreigners had tested positive after an outbreak at a plastic manufacturing plant.
In another central province, the industrial cities of Eumseong and Jincheon also ordered the provision of about 4,500 and 5,000 foreign residents, respectively, after the group infections arose from a glass factory and a processing company. food.
The working conditions of migrant workers in South Korea received new control after a Cambodian woman was found dead living in a greenhouse with cold temperatures in the winter late last year.
The deaths of hundreds of undocumented Thai migrant workers in South Korea prompted the United Nations last year to call for an investigation into the fate of migrants.
The death toll from Thai workers hit an all-time high in 2020 (122 in mid-December), according to a report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Reports by Josh Smith; Editing by Stephen Coates and Alex Richardson