Covid-19: MOE to bus primary school students to paediatric vaccination centres after March 2022 holidays

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Education (MOE) will help to facilitate the vaccination of Primary 1 to 6 students in MOE schools who are below the age of 12 by taking them to paediatric vaccination centres by bus after the March 2022 school holidays. This is under a school-facilitated vaccination exercise.

In a news release on Tuesday (Feb 15), MOE said that parents or guardians of these students may opt for their children who are medically eligible and willing to be vaccinated to do so “without the accompaniment of parents”.

They will be informed of the registration details via the Parents Gateway platform — a portal that supports the school-home partnership — on Feb 18.

MOE, however, noted that those who wish to get their child or ward vaccinated before Term 2 may walk-in to any of the paediatric vaccination centres from Monday to Thursday before 7pm without an appointment, or to book an appointment on the Ministry of Health’s National Appointment System.

“We strongly encourage parents or guardians to get their child or ward vaccinated early amid the Omicron surge. This will reduce their chances of getting infected with Covid-19, and prevent them from getting severely ill if they do get infected,” MOE said.

Separately, the ministry also gave an update on the Covid-19 vaccination progress of children in Singapore.

Some 213,000 children aged between five and 11 had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Feb 13, and more than 120,000 of them have been fully vaccinated.

Among the students in primary schools, about 79 per cent of them have signed up to be vaccinated, with “75 per cent already having received at least their first dose”.

“We are on track for over 70 per cent of our primary school students to have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by end February 2022,” MOE said.

MOE also said that 23,500 preschool children — those who were born in 2016 and 2017 — have registered to receive a Covid-19 vaccine on the National Appointment System.

Of that number, close to 18,000 of them have received their first dose of the vaccine.

MOE added that more that 26,500 children have taken a Covid-19 vaccine under the general walk-in appointment before 7pm on Mondays to Thursdays.