South Korea ordered a fifth more flu vaccines this year to ward off what it calls a "twindemic", or the prospect that people with flu develop coronavirus complications and overburden hospitals in winter. The Korean Medical Association, an influential group of doctors, urged the government to halt all inoculation programs for now, to ensure the vaccines were safe, but the government has refused. Singapore is the first country to temporarily halt the use of the two influenza vaccines as a precaution while their health agency is investigating. -GEG

Singapore has temporarily halted the use of two influenza vaccines as a precaution after some people who received them in South Korea died, becoming among the first countries to publicly announce a halt of the vaccines' usage.

South Korea reported that, as of Saturday, 48 people had died after getting flu shots, but said it would carry on with the state-run vaccination programme because it found no direct link between the deaths and the shots.

No deaths associated with influenza vaccination have been reported in Singapore to date, but the decision to halt the use of SKYCellflu Quadrivalent and VaxigripTetra was precautionary, the health ministry and the Health Sciences Authority (HAS) said in a statement on Sunday.