Vaccinations for the flu will begin from next Wednesday as South Korea braces for the possibility of concurrent outbreaks of seasonal influenza and COVID-19.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday laid out countermeasures to inhibit the spread of the flu, which the agency expects will spread rampantly due to eased social distancing and lower natural immunity, requiring enhanced monitoring this winter and fall.

Flu vaccinations are at the center of the agency’s measures, and are available from next Wednesday for high-risk demographics including children between six months and 13 years old, pregnant women, and the elderly aged 65 or older at some 20-thousand medical facilities nationwide.

Other measures include expedited distribution of antiviral drugs for high-risk patients and more stringent standards applied to the epidemic advisory calculation, lowering the rate of symptomatic doctors per one-thousand outpatients from five-point-eight to four-point-nine.

The symptomatic doctor-to-patient ratio has been increasing steadily since July to reach four-point-seven at the end of August.