SEOUL, March 8 (Reuters) – South Korea said on Monday that it found no link between the coronavirus vaccine and several recent deaths, by ordering nearly 100,000 foreign workers to be tested after groups emerged in dormitories .
Health officials investigated the deaths of eight people with underlying illnesses who had adverse reactions after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, but said they found no evidence that the injections had any influence.
“We provisionally concluded that it was difficult to establish any link between his adverse reaction after vaccination and his deaths,” said Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
South Korea began vaccinating residents and workers in nursing homes and other individuals at risk in late February, with 316,865 people receiving their first vaccines on Sunday.
Several outbreaks in factories and other industrial workplaces have prompted authorities to begin inspecting 12,000 workplaces with international workers, while several local governments have ordered foreign workers to be tested in the next few days.
“Their work environment and community housing increase the risk of infection, but it is difficult to find patients early because of their limited access to medical resources and tests, and the issue of staying illegally,” said Jeong.
Gyeonggi province has ordered about 85,000 foreign workers to be tested in the next two weeks, Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs, Lee Yong-chul, told a news conference.
Recently, at least 151 foreign residents in the town of Dongducheon in Gyeonggi tested positive, although what caused the outbreak remains unclear.
In Namyangju, another city in Gyeonggi, at least 124 foreigners tested positive after an outbreak at a plastic factory.
In another central province, the industrial cities of Eumseong and Jincheon also ordered about 4,500 and 5,000 foreign residents, respectively, to be tested after group infections emerged at a glass factory and a food processing company.
Working conditions for migrant workers in South Korea received further scrutiny after a Cambodian woman was found dead living in a greenhouse in low winter temperatures late last year.
The deaths of hundreds of undocumented Thai migrant workers in South Korea prompted the United Nations last year to call for an inquiry into the fate of migrants.
The number of Thai worker deaths reached an annual record in 2020 – 122 in mid-December – according to a report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Stephen Coates)