Over 70 pct of S. Koreans willing to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots: poll

National 15:54 April 02, 2021

SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- Over 7 out of 10 South Koreans are willing to receive coronavirus vaccine shots, a poll showed Friday.

In a survey on 1,000 people aged 18 and above conducted on Wednesday and Thursday by Gallup Korea, 71 percent said they would like to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Among them, 50 percent said they will "definitely" receive vaccine shots.

Only 23 percent were not willing to join the nationwide inoculation campaign, with 8 percent of them saying they will "never" get vaccinated.

Compared with the pollster's similar survey carried out from Feb. 23-25, just before the vaccine rollout kicked off here, the rate of those who said they will "definitely" or "never" receive vaccine shots rose by 2 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively.

By age bracket, those in their 20s were evenly divided on the matter, with 49 percent showing eagerness toward coronavirus vaccination and the other 49 percent not.

In contrast, 82 percent of those aged 60 and above said they were eager to get vaccinated.

A medical worker fills a syringe with a coronavirus vaccine at a public health center in western Seoul on April 2, 2021. (Yonhap)

In terms of the level of people's trust in the three major COVID-19 vaccines, the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.'s product was the most trusted with 68 percent, followed by Moderna's with 49 percent and AstraZeneca's with 42 percent.

Since South Korea started its nationwide COVID-19 vaccination scheme on Feb. 26, more than 910,000 have gotten inoculated, accounting for 1.75 percent of the country's population of 52 million.

This survey had a confidence level of 95 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.