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South Korean leaders apologize for navy ship COVID-19 outbreak amid vaccine furor
CGTN
South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks to reporters as he arrives at the government complex in Seoul. /AFP

South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks to reporters as he arrives at the government complex in Seoul. /AFP

South Korea's prime minister and defense minister apologized as hundreds of COVID-19-infected sailors were flown to Seoul on Tuesday after a navy destroyer patrolling the waters off Africa was found to be riddled with the coronavirus.

Almost 250 of the 301-strong unvaccinated crew aboard the destroyer Munmu the Great were infected, the country's biggest cluster of COVID-19 military cases, sparking a public furor at the government's failure to protect those serving abroad.

"I apologize for having failed to take better care of the health of our soldiers who devoted themselves to the country," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told an intra-agency COVID-19 meeting as he promised treatment and recovery support for the crew, which includes 12 in critical condition.

Defense Minister Suh Wook apologized for not immunizing the crew before they departed for the Gulf of Aden in early February on an eight-month counter-piracy mission and said he would examine anti-virus policies for all overseas military units.

The rare double apology underscored the simmering anger in South Korea over the handling of the pandemic as a fourth wave of infections sweeps through the country with just 13 percent of the 52 million population fully inoculated amid vaccine shortages.

The destroyer left South Korea just a couple of weeks before officials kicked off a national vaccination program. Authorities decided that inoculating at sea would not be feasible due to limited emergency responses and cold storage requirements for some vaccines, the defense ministry said.

But opposition lawmakers said the government should have sought help from other countries or replaced the crew with vaccinated personnel and urged President Moon Jae-in to apologize and fire Suh.

Moon said he would accept criticism over the "insufficient, complacent" handling of the issue and ordered improved measures to ensure the health and safety of troops and diplomats serving abroad.

Opposition lawmakers also blamed poor initial responses for aggravating the outbreak on board the destroyer, as a sailor who first reported symptoms on July 2 was only given cold medicine.

The military initially used less accurate antigen testing kits and only began using full-scale polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests when six members were confirmed to be infected on July 15, said Han Ki-ho, an opposition People Party lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary defense committee.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,278 new cases for Monday, taking the country's total to 180,481 infections, with 2,059 deaths.

Source(s): Reuters

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