S. Korea asks teenagers to receive COVID-19 vaccine amid rising cases

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s health authorities on Thursday asked teenagers to receive COVID-19 vaccine amid the rising infection cases of minors.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement that it strongly recommends the vaccination of teenagers as the number of confirmed cases continued to grow among unvaccinated teenagers.

The total number of confirmed cases among those aged 12-17 gained from 3,630 in September to 4,837 in October and 6,612 in November.

For the past four weeks, the number of infections per 100,000 minors aged 18 or lower stood at 210.1, higher than 167.3 for adults aged 19 or higher.

Infections among middle school students have been on the rise due to their low vaccination rate compared to high school students, the KDCA said.

In the latest tally, the full vaccination rate among those aged 16-17 was 65.8 percent, while the rate for those aged 12-15 stood merely at 18.5 percent.

The full inoculation rate for those aged 18 or higher rose to 91.9 percent as of midnight Wednesday.

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