Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Tuesday instructed health authorities to review ways of introducing a holiday program geared toward vaccinations against the new coronavirus.

"There is a need to systematize a vaccine holiday to encourage the people to participate in the vaccination campaign with assurance," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a daily interagency meeting on the coronavirus response.

Chung explained that regular side effects, such as experiencing a fever or aching of the body, reported by those who have received vaccine jabs raised the need to implement a vaccine holiday program.

"The public's participation in vaccinations without fears or anxieties is what's most important in guaranteeing speedy government inoculations as planned," Chung added.

He also underscored the direness of the latest developments in new cases, noting that the recent virus-related metrics point to a potential break out of the nation's fourth pandemic wave if continuous cluster outbreaks are not contained by next week.

"The government will engage in enforcing on-site antivirus measures by mobilizing all resources at its disposal," Chung said, while reaffirming the health authorities' aim to bring down the number of new daily cases to the 200 range by next week.

The daily caseload has been below 400 for two consecutive days after staying above the threshold over the past week due to sporadic cluster infections and an increase in people traveling amid warmer weather.

South Korea began its vaccination campaign on Feb. 26 with the goal of getting 70 percent of its population inoculated by September. It also aims to create herd community by November.

The government has already secured COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate 79 million people under the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project and separate contracts with five foreign drug firms. (Yonhap)