1.01 Million Doses of Janssen Vaccine Arrive at Seoul Airport Around Midnight on the 5th

Janssen (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine
[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The fourth COVID-19 vaccine introduced in South Korea, the Janssen vaccine (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson), will arrive in the early morning of the 5th.

The health authorities announced on the 3rd, "The Janssen vaccine is scheduled to arrive at Seoul Airport around midnight to 1 a.m. on the 5th." This is a total of 1,012,800 doses provided by the U.S. government as a follow-up measure after the Korea-U.S. summit. It was developed as a single-dose vaccine, so one dose equals one person’s vaccination.

This is also the biggest advantage of the Janssen vaccine. Unlike other vaccines that provide incentives separately for the first and second doses, all incentives apply with just one dose. For example, if a person receives the first dose on June 16, Janssen vaccine recipients will be exempt from all private gathering restrictions starting in July. In contrast, AZ vaccine recipients must wait 11 weeks to receive the second dose and then an additional two weeks, so they can only enjoy the full vaccination incentives around mid-September.

Janssen vaccine administration will be conducted at designated medical institutions through prior reservations, similar to the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine currently being administered to seniors aged 60 and above.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's COVID-19 vaccination reservation system indicates that pre-registration for the Janssen vaccine has ended. [Image source=COVID-19 Vaccination Reservation System capture]

The vaccination targets include 538,000 reservists aged 30 and above, 3.04 million civil defense personnel, 137,000 military-related workers, totaling 3.715 million people. Military-related workers include Ministry of National Defense, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and Military Manpower Administration officials, fixed-entry civilian personnel, employees of Ministry of National Defense-affiliated organizations, families of professional soldiers (spouses, children, cohabiting direct ascendants, siblings, etc.), and fixed-entry civilian personnel at military units.

However, the Janssen vaccine being introduced this time amounts to 1,012,800 doses, while the vaccination target population is 3.7 times larger than the available vaccine supply, so the government adopted a first-come, first-served reservation system without selecting priority recipients.

Pre-reservations for 900,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine, which started at midnight on the 1st, closed at 6:04 p.m. on the same day, 18 hours later. Although there were concerns that the reservation rate would be low due to the rare risk of thrombosis associated with viral vector vaccines like AstraZeneca (AZ), reservations filled quickly. Vaccinations will be conducted from June 10 to 20.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.