Anchor: While concerns over safety have discouraged some people from getting the COVID-19 vaccine in South Korea, the government has expanded medical coverage for serious post-inoculation illnesses, even when there is no proven causal link to the vaccine. By boosting confidence in the shots, health authorities are seeking to speed up vaccinations, which have only been completed for some one-point-eight percent of the nation's population. 
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: The government began paying up to ten-million won, or some eight-thousand-800 U.S. dollars, to those who suffered severe symptoms after immunization but could not prove causal ties. 

In a regular briefing Monday, Jeong Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA), announced the move amid concerns over the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in the country. 

[Sound bite: Dr. Jeong Eun-kyeong - Commissioner, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (Korean-English translation)]
"The measure is to bolster government responsibility over the COVID-19 vaccines. This will be offered to those who have been hospitalized in the ICU or deemed to have suffered at such levels after vaccination but could not receive compensation as the investigators or the expert compensation panel could not find sufficient grounds to prove causal relation."

The medical coverage is also applicable retroactively to those who received shots before it was announced. 

[Sound bite: Dr. Jeong Eun-kyeong - Commissioner, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (Korean-English translation)]
“Since the inoculation program began, the rate of adverse reaction reports stands at zero-point-47 percent of total vaccinations, with muscle spasms and headaches taking up 95-point-eight-percent... "

Since the inoculation program began, a total of 97 deaths and 101 severe cases were investigated and causal ties were found only in two cases. 

With the government seeking to lessen public concerns over the safety of the shots, the immunization program is also picking up speed with additional shipments of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines coming in.

Some one-point-06 million AstraZeneca doses from an SK Bioscience factory in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, were shipped to vaccination centers on Monday.

With the latest shipment, about 23 percent of the government's vaccine procurement for the second quarter has been completed. 

A total of 940-thousand-345 people, or one-point-83 percent of the nation's population, have completed their COVID-19 vaccinations, and seven-point-27 percent have received at least one shot, as of the end of Sunday.  

As one-point-75 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are scheduled to arrive this month, the first round of Pfizer inoculations for seniors aged 75 or older and those living or working at nursing facilities is set to resume on Saturday.  
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.