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Residents undergo inoculation Wednesday at a COVID-19 vaccination center set up at the Daegu Athletics Promotion Center, in Suseong District. (Yonhap News)

Calls to select certain job classes and regions as priority targets for COVID-19 vaccination have been erupting from government agencies, local governments and politicians as the South Korean government gears up to announce its third quarter vaccination plan next week.

Experts have proposed prioritizing vaccinations for South Koreans in their 50s, suggesting that priority should be given to patients with rare and intractable conditions.

“During the third quarter, we basically plan to proceed with inoculations based on age,” explained Kim Ki-nam, director of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination task force in a regular briefing Tuesday.

“We will be considering whether to assign separate priority to vaccinating vulnerable or essential demographics going forward,” he added.

His remarks came in response to a question about whether people suffering from rare or chronic conditions or other population segments seen as “vulnerable to infection” would be prioritized for vaccination during the third quarter.

Recently, there has been a barrage of requests from various areas of society to prioritize certain groups for vaccination in the third quarter.

At a plenary session Wednesday, the Jeju Provincial Council planned to address a proposal to the central government suggesting that the island’s residents should receive priority vaccination, citing concerns over infections transmitted by tourists.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has called on disease control authorities to prioritize university students and employees at public schools and afterschool classes for inoculation, while the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has requested priority vaccinations for delivery workers and street cleaners.

The ruling Democratic Party’s special committee for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments has proposed priority vaccination for small business and mom-and-pop store owners.

The flurry of requests has sparked concerns among experts, with fears that it could lead to “ranking” the importance of particular regions and job classes — with potentially damaging effects for the principle that priority vaccination should go to those at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19.

“The overarching aims of selecting priority vaccination candidates in the first place are to lower the risk of severe symptoms and death, reduce the burden on the healthcare system, and prevent transmission,” explained Choi Won-seok, a professor of infectious disease at Korea University Ansan Hospital.

“When you have other considerations interfering with that, it isn’t a good thing,” he stressed.

But with vaccination of senior citizens largely completed during the first half of the year, experts said that priority vaccinations during the third quarter should be focused on those with rare and chronic conditions.

“During the third quarter, we should proceed according to age, but we also need to give priority vaccination opportunities to younger people who are suffering from rare and intractable conditions such as compromised immunity,” urged Eom Joong-sik, a professor of infectious disease at Gachon University Gil Medical Center.

Proponents of this approach say that candidates with severe, rare and intractable conditions can be identified through Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) records, which indicate whether they are receiving expanded benefits.

The 149 South Korean COVID-19 patients classified as being in severe or critical condition as of Wednesday included 4.7% aged 40-49, 3.36% aged 30-39, 1.34% aged 20-29 and 0.67% aged 10-19. Cumulative mortality rates as of that day stood at 0.07% for COVID-19 patients in their 40s, 0.04% for those in their 30s, 0.01% for those in their 20s, and 0% for those 19 and under.

The age groups targeted for vaccination during the second half of the year and later are those with a relatively low risk of dying or developing severe or critical symptoms, with few major differences observed between the groups.

At present, the South Korean government appears to be leaning toward not identifying priority vaccination candidates at all, on the assumption that the roughly 80 million vaccine doses acquired for the third quarter should be enough to provide some leeway.

Under the administration’s target of administering at least a first dose to 36 million people by September, even South Koreans in their 20s could receive a first dose by September if the vaccines are administered simply according to age group.

The administration’s apparent plan is to work toward administering vaccines faster and more efficiently according to age, rather than going through the trouble of singling out 100,000 to 200,000 people for priority vaccination.

By Seo Hye-mi, staff reporter

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