South Korean officials have refused to suspend a seasonal influenza inoculation effort, despite growing calls for a halt, including an appeal from a key group of doctors, after the deaths of at least 25 of those vaccinated, Reuters reported.

Health authorities said they found no direct links between the deaths and the vaccines.

“The number of deaths has increased, but our team sees low possibility that the deaths resulted from the shots,” the agency's director, Jeong Eun-kyeong, told parliament.

South Korea has 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.