ⓒYONHAP News

Data has shown the fatality rate of omicron infections among people who have completed three rounds of COVID-19 vaccinations dropped to levels similar to that of the seasonal flu.

According to a health ministry analysis of more than 136-thousand patients on Wednesday, the omicron fatality rate among individuals who received three jabs stood at zero-point-08 percent.

While the general omicron fatality rate in the country currently stands at zero-point-18 percent, the rate among the fully vaccinated is tracking within a range comparable to the seasonal flu, from zero-point-05 to zero-point-one percent.

The omicron fatality rate among the unvaccinated, however, was higher at zero-point-five percent, which is over five times that of the flu.

Among seniors aged 60 and older, the fatality rate when fully vaccinated stood at zero-point-five percent, compared to five-point-39 percent when unvaccinated.

Authorities strongly urged the unvaccinated public to get their shots without delay, saying that if vaccination rates reach a certain level, the pandemic can be treated as an endemic.

Also on Wednesday, the government authorized the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of five and eleven, the first in the country for that age group.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said that the approval was granted on the condition that Pfizer Korea submit a final report on their clinical studies.

In a study with three-thousand-109 children aged five to eleven, side effects were generally mild or moderate and were cleared within days following their inoculation. Vaccine efficacy was found to be 90-point-seven percent.

Developed specifically for children aged five to eleven, the vaccine’s dosage is ten micrograms, which is a third of the level administered to those aged 12 years and older.  

The ministry also announced on Wednesday that the World Health Organization(WHO) plans to set up a global biomanufacturing training hub in South Korea to teach low-income countries how to produce pharmaceutical products and vaccines on their own.

The WHO said the facility will provide technical and hands-on training in the production of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, enabling low- and middle-income countries to produce vaccines internally.

The global health body began a location search to launch its training hub project to counter a significant global inequality in the distribution of vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korea plans to start training 370 professionals from around the world in July.