Over half of South Koreans think the speed at which coronavirus vaccinations are carried out is more important than verifying their safety, a public survey showed Wednesday.

In the Realmeter survey conducted on 500 people aged 18 or older nationwide Tuesday, 54.9 percent of the respondents said the country should start vaccinating the public as soon as possible because the current state of the new coronavirus pandemic is dire.

Another 41.1 percent, however, said inoculations could wait until the safety of COVID-19 vaccines is verified more because the situation here is not as severe as cases abroad, according to the survey.

Most of the remaining 4 percent said they are not sure.

A higher rate of 66 percent put priority on the speed of vaccinations over safety among the respondents in their 60s, while the corresponding rate among those in their 50s was 55.8 percent.

Respondents in their 20s and 30s were almost evenly divided between the two, the survey also showed. The support rating for speed was around 49 percent and for safety around 48 percent for both groups.

The survey, commissioned by a local news outlet, OhmyNews, had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

On Wednesday, the country added 1,092 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,060 local infections, raising the total caseload to 52,550, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The government said coronavirus vaccinations will be able to start being administered in the first quarter of next year on a limited basis. (Yonhap)