South Korea on Tuesday began vaccinating people aged 65 and older at nursing homes and long-term care hospitals nationwide as scheduled, amid a mix of excitement and anxiety.

More than 370,000 inpatients in the age group, caretakers and medical staff at such facilities are scheduled to get vaccinated in the coming weeks.

The second round of the country's vaccine rollout came after the government decided to expand the vaccination program based on new overseas studies showing the effectiveness of the vaccine for the age group. On Monday, health experts confirmed there is no correlation between blood clots found in some recipients and the product.

Vaccination began earlier in the day at long-term care hospitals around the country. Nearly 206,000 people at 1,651 hospitals are eligible for their first shots of AstraZeneca's vaccine.

An inpatient at a hospital in Bucheon, west of Seoul, who received a much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine shot earlier in the day, said she had "been waiting to be vaccinated" and was "relieved to finally get the shot."

"I don't feel anything unusual right now but will be watching out," she said.

Families of patients at those hospitals cautiously hoped that the vaccine rollout means life will to return to normal, after months of forced separation from their sick loved ones.

"I still have some reservations about vaccines, but I haven't been able to see my mom for almost a year," a family member of an inpatient in North Chungcheong Province said. "I hope vaccination advances the day when I can freely go see her."

Another family of an inpatient in the southern port city of Busan said, "I decided to agree with vaccinating my mom after reading news that vaccines have a better effectiveness among older people."

Some people, however, are still concerned about the safety of AstraZeneca's vaccine and are taking a wait-and-see approach to getting a shot.

According to a government study, approximately 155,000 of those eligible for the second round of the country's inoculation program, or 75.2 percent, agreed to receive the shot as of Monday. The figure is lower than 92.8 percent among people younger than 65 surveyed from the same facilities.

A hospital in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, reported a flurry of cancellations of vaccine appointments after media reported about deaths following vaccinations, even though there proved to be no correlation between the two events.

A 47-year-old woman in Busan said she was anxious about the vaccine's safety for her father in his 80s.

"Health authorities said there was no proven link between deaths and vaccination, but I am still worried because he is old and has underlying health conditions," she said.

A hospital official in Busan said the hospital plans to administer vaccine shots carefully according to patients' individual health conditions.

Since South Korea began vaccinations on Feb. 26, around 1.3 percent of the country's 52 million population have received their first shots.

The country has secured enough coronavirus vaccines to inoculate 79 million people, higher than its population of 51.6 million, with a goal to achieve herd immunity by November. (Yonhap)