SK President Moon, First Lady To Receive AstraZeneca Vaccines Next Week
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his first lady Kim Jung-sook are set to be inoculated with AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine next week, on Tuesday, March 23, ahead of their planned trip for the G-7 summit to the United Kingdom in June, Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement on Monday.
The presidential office also said that the president and the first lady would receive two doses of AstraZeneca vaccines just as what the other citizens will also be vaccinated with.
The vaccination accordingly aims to eliminate issues and doubts surrounding the said vaccine, as many people question its safety and efficacy, Kang Min-seok, Moon's spokesperson, said in a news briefing.
Health authorities had planned to start vaccinating its citizens aged 65 or older next week, after the country's first batch of vaccinations is expected to be done this week.
Moon and Kim, belonging to the said age group of 65 and older, will be the first among the group to be vaccinated as it is deemed necessary for public purposes.
The two vaccine brands that are currently being administered for South Korean people are AstraZeneca and Pfizer. The ordinary citizens will be receiving AstraZeneca vaccines, while medical frontliners will be inoculated with Pfizer, which has a smaller batch of the vaccines.
Other details with regards to the schedule of the vaccination, such as the time and place, were not yet disclosed due to security reasons.
South Korea will be attending the first face-to-face assembly in two years of the Group of Seven (G 7) - intergovernmental organization, as a guest nation, alongside India and Australia. G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Among the G7 leaders, only US President Joe Biden has been vaccinated yet.
In 2020, Britain officially invited South Korea, India, and Australia to the group.
