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| A medical worker stands by at a temporary COVID-19 testing center at Seoul Station, Wednesday. Yonhap |
Ministries to redouble efforts to boost vaccination rate of foreign residents
By Jun Ji-hye
Health authorities here are paying keen attention to a recent spike in COVID-19 infections among foreign residents amid no sign of a slowdown of the latest wave of the pandemic.
Concerns are being raised because the infection rate per 100,000 foreign residents has been nine times higher than the rate per 100,000 Korean nationals over the past week, while the vaccination rate of the former has been lower than that of the latter.
According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, a total of 2,305 foreign residents were confirmed to have COVID-19 from Sept. 19 to 25, a high increase from the 940 cases tallied in the middle of August, in line with the continued increase in infections here amid the ongoing fourth wave of the pandemic.
The 2,305 foreign patients accounted for 16.2 percent of the total, and among them, 64.5 percent lived in the Seoul metropolitan area that includes Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. The infection rate per 100,000 people was tallied at 208 for foreign residents and 23 for Koreans.
"The number of foreign virus patients has continued to increase for two-consecutive weeks," Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol said during a government meeting on COVID-19 responses, Wednesday. "Concerns have been especially growing in some areas in Chungcheong, Jeolla and North Gyeongsang regions as foreign patients there have exceeded 30 percent of the total."
As for the vaccination rate, 71.9 percent of Korean nationals have received at least their first shot as of Saturday, while 44.4 percent are fully vaccinated.
On the other hand, the rate of foreign residents who have received their first shot stood at 65.7 percent and 24.4 percent have been fully vaccinated.
The interior and safety ministry cited a lack of information about undocumented foreign residents as one of the reasons for the lower vaccination rate.
"We will enhance a public campaign targeting foreign workers in the construction, agriculture and fisheries industries as well as international students to increase their vaccination rate," Jeon said. "We will also work to issue temporary registration numbers for undocumented foreign residents and support medical expenses in case they suffer any abnormal reactions after vaccinations to encourage them to receive shots."
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| Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol speaks during a government meeting on COVID-19 responses at the Government Complex in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
For its part, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said it will carry out activities to promote the government policy that would give no disadvantages to undocumented foreign residents who seek to receive vaccine shots.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country added 2,885 new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, including 2,859 local infections, bringing the total caseload to 308,725.
The latest figure marked the second largest since the nation reported its first virus case in January last year.
The daily caseload touched a fresh high of 3,272, Friday, amid growing fears that millions of people who traveled across the country during the Chuseok holiday from Sept. 18 to 22 would fuel the spread of the coronavirus.
Ten more patients died from the coronavirus, raising the death toll to 2,474, with the fatality rate stood at 0.8 percent.
Minister Jeon noted that the number of critically-ill patients and the fatality rate have continued to decrease in recent weeks, despite the continued increase in virus infections, attributing this to the country's vaccination program.
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