South Korea: Flu deaths rise amid spike in virus cases

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – At least 101 people have died after being administered seasonal flu vaccines in South Korea triggering panic among the public.

However, health authorities in the country insist that 97 of those deaths have “very limited relation with the flu shots”, Yonhap News Agency reported. Four cases are still being probed.

Authorities have instead asked people to get flu vaccinations, free of cost, before the onset of winter.

Most of the deceased, 84 people, were aged over 70.

The rise in deaths after being given the flu vaccines comes amid a spike in coronavirus cases.

People have raised concern over public anxiety of the flu vaccine which are said to have been exposed to room temperature during distribution. The authorities deny there is any safety issue.

South Korea has administered the vaccine to 12.56 million people until now out of about 19 million people.

Meanwhile, health officials said the rise in coronavirus cases continued for a third day, mostly cluster infections. The authorities are mulling over raising the level of social distancing measures.

Officials said 100 more COVID-19 cases were reported Tuesday including 71 local infections, raising the total caseload to 27,653.

A total of 126 and 143 cases were reported on Monday and Sunday, respectively.

Five more patients died due to COVID-19 raising the death toll to 485.

South Korea has conducted 2,723,960 COVID-19 tests since the outbreak.