The government is currently not considering making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for the general public.

Senior Health Ministry official Lee Gi-il on Friday denied a local media report, saying it would be appropriate to encourage the public to voluntarily get the shots through incentives.

This echoes what the nation's vaccine task force said a day earlier, stressing that encouragement, rather than requirement, is more needed.

As for the U.S. government's decision to obligate all federal workers to get vaccinated, the official said the requirement is believed to follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s(FDA) approval of the Pfizer vaccine.