Close to a third of eligible students have received first dose of Covid-19 vaccine: Dr Maliki Osman

SINGAPORE — Close to a third of eligible students, or 101,000 of them, have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, two weeks after Singapore kicked off its vaccination exercise for this group.

In all, about 300,000, or about 87 per cent, of 345,000 eligible students who have received invites to get their shots have registered or booked their vaccination slots. 

The update on the vaccination programme across schools here was provided by Dr Maliki Osman, Second Minister for Education, on Monday (June 14). He was touring the Ministry of Education (MOE) vaccination centre set up at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College West in Chua Chu Kang. 

The centre administered Covid-19 vaccination doses to about 300 ITE students on Monday, the first day of vaccinations for ITE students. 

Nine in 10 ITE students eligible for vaccination, out of a 28,000-strong cohort, have accepted the invitation to be inoculated against the coronavirus so far, Dr Maliki said.

The nation-wide vaccination programme for students kicked off on June 1, with priority given to graduating cohorts for O-Levels, N-Levels and A-Levels.

Dr Maliki said that more than 90 per cent of students in graduating cohorts had registered to receive their inoculations, of which about 75 per cent have received their first dose of the vaccine. 

“What we hope is for all students to register and get vaccinated for their first dose by the end of June... For the second vaccination, we hope that students will be able to get vaccinated with the second dose by the end of August.”

So far, a “very small” number of students have experienced adverse effects after receiving their vaccines, Dr Maliki said, without providing specific figures. He added that the ministry will monitor the situation “very, very closely” to ensure that vaccines are safe for students.

On whether schools will implement a different set of safety measures for vaccinated and unvaccinated students, Dr Maliki said that they will not. This is to avoid stigmatising students who are not vaccinated for various reasons.

“We have to respect the decision by parents on whether they would like their children to be vaccinated but we hope that the environment is one where everyone in the school feels safer.”

Schools will reach out to parents to address concerns they may face over allowing their children to be vaccinated, and also facilitate ferrying students to vaccination centres when the schools reopen after the June holidays, Dr Maliki said.

Three MOE vaccination centres located in ITE College Central, ITE College East and ITE College West began operations over the last week.

The fourth MOE vaccination centre at Raffles City Convention Centre will open on Tuesday. 

Each centre in an ITE can take up to 1,600 vaccination slots a day, while Raffles Convention Centre can handle up to 2,000 slots a day.