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A sauna in Seoul put out a banner announcing a discount for those fully vaccinated for COVID-19. (Yonhap News)

Since South Korea began inoculating people aged 65-74 with the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19, the vaccination reservation rate has increased for older adults. Evidence that large numbers of people are getting vaccinated appears to have convinced people who’d been on the fence to sign up for the jab.

Over the past three days, more than 9,000 people have received their first dose of the vaccine through a same-day vaccination scheme organized by Naver and KakaoTalk.

The government’s COVID-19 vaccination task force said Sunday that 217,270 people aged 60-74 signed up for vaccination on Thursday, the day after mass vaccination of older adults began. The next day, Friday, 242,789 people in that age group signed up.

The daily tally of reservations is on the rise again after holding steady under 200,000.

After vaccination reservations were opened up for people aged 70-74 on May 6 and for people aged 60-64 on May 10, the number of new reservations rapidly climbed for a week or so only to level off. The number then slipped below 200,000 Tuesday (171,979) and Wednesday (173,741).

That had raised concerns that the government wouldn’t reach its goal of a vaccination rate of 80% for the elderly. As of Sunday, 68% of people aged 60-74 had booked their COVID-19 vaccination.

The government expects that the rate of reservations will start to increase as the number of vaccinated people surges in early June. Vaccinations began for those aged 65-74 on Thursday and will begin for those aged 60-64 on June 7, boosting the number of people vaccinated each day.

From Thursday to Saturday, 1,362,876 Koreans received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. More specifically, 657,192 got the jab on Thursday, 542,227 on Friday, and 163,457 on Saturday.

Along with the increasing number of people signing up for their vaccination, keen interest in services that allow people to snap up “extra vaccines” is also likely to boost Korea’s vaccination rate. Since Naver and KakaoTalk started accepting requests for leftover vaccines on Thursday, there’s been a surge of social interest in the race to sign up.

According to data released by the government’s vaccination task force, a total of 9,046 people had received a same-day vaccination after signing up through Naver and KakaoTalk on the three days from May Thursday to Saturday. Meanwhile, 147,914 people got their first jab after calling in to have their name added to a waiting list.

In addition to government incentives for getting vaccinated, the private sector is also offering various discounts for vaccinated people.

The Millennium Hilton Seoul announced that it would be allowing vaccinated people and others in their party to eat at the hotel buffet for half off through June 30. A large sauna in Seoul will also be launching a promotion Tuesday to give vaccinated people a 2,000 won (US$1.8) discount.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

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