South Korea will introduce real-time search and notification alerts for COVID-19 vaccination no-shows, in a bid to not waste a single dose. The services will launch on the country’s largest web portal Naver and No. 1 messenger app KakaoTalk at 1 p.m. Thursday, allowing all Koreans to check on the real-time availability of leftover vaccines nearby.

Due to limited supply of jabs, only priority groups are eligible for vaccination right now in Korea and no-show appointments are the only way for those not belonging to those groups to get inoculated.

The government has teamed up with Naver and Kakao in order to minimize the amount of wasted vaccines.

Naver will launch the “Vaccination Notification in Our Neighborhood” service on Naver and Naver Map apps as well as on the portal’s mobile webpage, starting from 1:00 p.m. Thursday.

Through the service, users can browse the number of available COVID-19 vaccine doses in their neighborhoods in real time and find hospitals or medical facilities where they can make reservations for vaccination.

When users choose nearby clinics for vaccination, they will be alerted when there are leftovers. Only AstraZeneca vaccines will be available for the real-time reservation service.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, Naver has been providing various services to help the general public gain access to information about prevention of the virus-triggered diseases, including a real-time search service for masks and a QR code check-in service.

By working together with the Ministry of Interior and Safety, Naver is also offering guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination, which includes measures to deal with abnormal symptoms or side effects after getting the shots.

“Naver is making an all-out effort to easily deliver a variety of COVID-19 information to the general public,” said Naver CEO Han Seong-sook. “The company will further elevate the vaccination notification service that will be directly linked to people’s health.”

Kakao, the operator of the country’s biggest mobile messenger KakaoTalk, also said it will start a vaccine search and alert service on its messenger platform.

From 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, KakaoTalk users can check out information about leftover vaccines on the # tab of the messenger app.

Lists of available doses and locations of medical centers can be seen all at once, the company said.

KakaoTalk users can choose up to five medical facilities that they can receive alerts from when vaccines become available.

“Through the latest improvement of the vaccination system, we hope more people can join and get vaccinated,” said KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong.

“Kakao will do its best to minimize the amount of wasted vaccines by using the company’s technology and platform,” said Kakao co-CEO Yeo Min-soo.
 
By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)