Want to book a vaccine in South Korea? Try to wait 111 hours.

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Seoul – When South Koreans logged on to a government website this month to book Covid-19 vaccine appointments, a pop-up told them there was a “slight” delay.

One of the messages that angered South Koreans captured in screenshots and shared online reads: “There are 401,032 people waiting in front of you.” Expected wait time: 111 hours 23 minutes 52 seconds.

Most people in the country are still waiting for the shots.

Once seen as a model in the fight against the epidemic, South Korea faltered for months on its vaccination program. The country is among the least vaccinated nations in the G20, with only 34.9 percent of its 2.5 million population having received at least one dose as of Wednesday, well below 55 to 70 percent in other developed nations. Now the South Koreans need to shoot more than ever.

The country is experiencing its worst wave of infections, with 1,896 new cases reported on Wednesday, its highest daily number. Critics say the government, resting on its early success in the pandemic, miscalculated how urgently South Korea needed to secure the shots, and that those mistakes are being amplified at a time when the country appears most vulnerable to the disease.

This month, officials told people in their 50s that their turn to reserve vaccines has finally arrived. Up to 10 million people simultaneously logged on to a government website to request snapshots. The system, designed to process up to 300,000 requests at once, crashed.

Many applicants have been told to start the process over after hours of waiting. Frustrated South Koreans compared the conflict to that of Sisyphus. Others likened him to trying to secure a ticket to a BTS concert that ran out.

“We are really sorry for people for causing this problem,” Son Young-rae, a senior government official in disease control, said last week, referring to the stalemate.

The latest wave of infections surprised officials. Just weeks ago, the government considered easing restrictions ahead of the summer holidays. It announced that up to six people would be allowed to dine together from July 1, up from the previous maximum of four. Nightclubs will be reopening. Restaurants, cafes and gyms will be allowed to remain open until later in the night.

Epidemiologists warned against easing restrictions while vaccinations remained low and the most contagious delta type appeared to be spreading.

“The government was sending the wrong signal to people,” said Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University in Seoul.

In a Gallup Korea poll last November, 87 percent of South Korean adults said they would be ready to be vaccinated as soon as doses became available, indicating a higher level of enthusiasm than the average of 71 percent among the 32 countries surveyed.

When people accused the government of being slow to secure vaccines, officials like Mr. Son told them not to worry, given South Korea’s initial success in controlling the spread of Covid-19.

For most of the past year, South Korea has won plaudits because its robust testing and contact tracing program has allowed the country to avoid the severe lockdowns seen in other countries. The South Korean economy has been one of the countries least affected by the epidemic. The government was so proud of its infection control success that it coined a name for it: K-Quarantine.

updated

Jul 28, 2021 at 11:44 a.m. ET

“We don’t need to be the first or second country in the world to start vaccinating,” Sun said in December. Unlike the United States and Britain, which have had to roll out vaccines in haste to tackle acute levels of infection, he said South Korea has the luxury of being able to wait and see if the vaccines are effective and safe.

With the virus largely under control, South Korea did not move aggressively to order doses during its early development. The consequences of this decision became woefully clear.

The country only began vaccinating people in late February, more than two months after Britain. The number of daily doses taken had rarely exceeded 100,000 until late May, when large shipments of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived and the government announced incentives, such as a promise to allow vaccinated people to go outdoors without a mask and go on group rides. In early June, up to 877,000 people were vaccinated daily.

But the government’s failure to push hard to secure early shipments eventually put South Korea at the back of the delivery line. By the time it needed doses in droves, there was a supply bottleneck as a few vaccine makers struggled to meet global demand. The emergence of more infectious variants exacerbated the deficiency.

On paper, South Korea ordered 190 million rounds, enough to fully impregnate twice the population. So far it has received only 25 million.

The country’s desperation over vaccinations has put enormous political pressure on President Moon Jae-in. One of his priorities when he met with President Biden in May was to help secure vaccines. Washington has committed to providing 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson. South Korea also received 780,000 doses from Israel this month, promising a future shipment.

Understand the state of vaccine mandates in the United States

That was not enough.

In late June, South Korea’s stocks began to run out. Vaccinations slowed to less than 200,000 people most days. By early July, when cases began to rise, the number of people vaccinated per day had dropped to as low as 1,665, forcing the government to cancel its plans around summer vacation.

Officials this month announced the toughest Covid restrictions in South Korea to date, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people in the evening.

“I was at a loss as to what the government was doing when they talked about easing restrictions ahead of the summer holiday season while we still have hundreds of new cases every day and most of the socially active young people haven’t even gotten their first vaccinations,” said Kim Young Ho, a parcel courier in Seoul. “Vaccines, not removing masks, is what people need.”

People under the age of 50 still cannot get vaccinated in South Korea. The government began vaccinating millions of South Koreans in their 50s on Tuesday and said it plans to start vaccinating young people as early as next month.

Prime Minister Kim Bo-kyeom has apologized for the disappointment and confusion, acknowledging that the government has been very keen to ease restrictions and lessen the pain of small businesses and low-income families who have been hit hardest by the pandemic.

Immunizations are expected to increase rapidly in the coming weeks, and 73 million new doses are due to arrive by the end of September. South Korea reported nearly one million newly vaccinated people on Tuesday and Wednesday alone. However, the near-term success of the immunization program remains uncertain.

Park Ji-young, the senior government coordinator of vaccine supplies, said that some of Moderna’s vaccines expected to arrive this month have been delayed due to an unspecified production problem. Samsung, which has signed a contract to make Moderna’s vaccine domestically, will not produce samples until late August or early September.

South Korea hopes to receive large shipments of the vaccine developed by Novavax starting in September. Novavax has not yet been approved for use in any country.

Despite the missteps, officials say they remain confident they will be able to meet their goal of vaccinating 36 million people – 70 percent of the population – with at least one shot by the end of September.

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