FIFTY-NINE South Koreans have died after getting flu shots, South Korea’s health authorities said yesterday.

Among the deaths, 52 of them were over the age of 70, said the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), adding that no direct link was found between the death and the flu shots after investigating the cause of 46 deaths.

The health authorities also said that some people had reported mild side effects including at the vaccination site, but no more severe and abnormal effects.

KDCA decided to continue the government-led free flu vaccination plan, as they didn’t find direct links between the vaccination and death of the people, who took the same flu shots.

Last year, more than 1,500 elderly people died within seven days of receiving flu vaccines, but those deaths were not linked to the vaccinations, the government said.

As South Korea presses on with its inoculations, Southeast Asia’s tiny city-state of Singapore became one of the first nations this week to call a temporary halt to the use of two influenza vaccines, as a precaution.

Flu season generally arrives between end-November and December. Considering that flu vaccines cause antibodies to develop in the body about two weeks after vaccination, experts recommend people get flu shots by mid-November.

(SD-CGTN)