SEOUL– President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday urged people to get booster shots as the nation is grappling with the worst wave of COVID-19 infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Three shots of vaccine significantly lessen the risk of death from omicron, and for people aged 60 and younger, boosters provide a high level of protection from death, Moon said.
“For people aged 60 and younger who have completed getting three vaccines, the omicron fatality rate has so far been 0 percent,” Moon said in a message posted on social media.
“The third round of vaccination is important in responding to omicron,” Moon said.
South Korea’s new COVID-19 infections soared to hit another high of over 170,000 on Wednesday, nearly doubling from a week earlier, as omicron raged across the nation.
Health authorities have said the omicron wave could reach a peak by early next month with the daily caseload rocketing up to 270,000.
About 60 percent of the country’s 52 million population has received booster shots. The number of people who received two vaccines came to 44.32 million, accounting for 86.4 percent of the population.
Source: Yonhap News Agency