A panel of experts has advised the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on seniors 65 years and older.

In a Monday briefing, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong ​shared the outcome of a meeting held last week where experts went over more recent clinical data, including that from the United Kingdom.

According to Public Health England, an agency under the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care, hospitalization rates dropped 80 percent among the elderly 80 and older who had received their first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The infection prevention rate for those 70 and above is tallied at 60 to 73 percent.

The KDCA chief said the government will now deliberate and decide this week whether to expand vaccine recipients, adding there are about 370-thousand residents, patients and employees over 65 at nursing homes and long-term care facilities waiting to be inoculated.