"Frequent Business Trips... Can't There Be a 'Business Vaccine'?"

Review of Business Community's Proposal for Priority COVID-19 Vaccination

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] As the government is planning the COVID-19 vaccination strategy, economic organizations intend to propose including businesspeople who frequently travel abroad as priority vaccination recipients. This approach is similar to the businessperson fast-track entry system established with some countries after the COVID-19 outbreak, prioritizing vaccination for businesspeople scheduled for overseas trips.

On the 14th, according to the business community, economic organizations such as the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Employers Federation, and the Federation of Korean Industries internally agree on the necessity of prioritizing vaccinations for businesspeople and are considering proposals to submit to the government.

This is because voices demanding priority vaccination are growing, especially among export companies. Currently, regardless of whether they are large or small and medium-sized enterprises, export companies have thousands of employees risking COVID-19 infection by traveling abroad for business. Among them, there have been cases of individuals visiting Europe, where COVID-19 is widespread, becoming infected and returning for treatment.

The businesspeople under consideration for priority vaccination by economic organizations are mainly employees engaged in overseas business trips. Priority vaccination is deemed necessary only for businesspeople scheduled to travel to countries currently implementing the fast-track entry system or when multiple companies gather travelers and move them by chartered flights.

A senior executive of an economic organization stated, "If the voices of companies demanding priority vaccination grow louder, we see it as an issue that can certainly be proposed to the government and are discussing it internally."

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