Covid-19 vaccination in Singapore to begin on Dec 30, starting with healthcare workers

SINGAPORE — Singapore will begin its Covid-19 vaccination exercise on Dec 30, with healthcare workers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) the first to receive doses.

Workers at other public healthcare institutions as well as private healthcare providers will follow in the subsequent weeks, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Sunday (Dec 27).

Next in line will be the elderly, with those aged 70 and above to receive their jabs from February next year. Other Singaporeans and long-term residents who are medically eligible for vaccination will follow.

MOH said it would provide more details in due course.

The ministry said that the Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination, which MOH had convened to make recommendations to the Government on Singapore’s vaccination strategy to tackle the disease, submitted its recommendations on Dec 24.

The Government has accepted the recommendations in full, MOH said.

The committee recommended that priority be given to people at high risk of being infected by Covid-19, such as healthcare workers, and those who are most vulnerable to severe disease and complications if they contract the disease, such as the elderly.

"We will start with vaccinating those 70 years old and above as they have more medical co-morbidities, and tend to have worse health outcomes than those aged 60 to 69 years old if infected with Covid-19," MOH said.

"Protecting such persons minimises Covid-19 related mortality and morbidity, and ensures that our healthcare system will continue to have the capacity to care for the overall health of all Singaporeans."

The committee is chaired by Associate Professor Benjamin Ong, who is senior adviser to the director of medical services at MOH, and comprises experts in infectious diseases, immunology and other fields.

Singapore received the first shipment of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech on Dec 21, and subsequent vaccine stocks are expected to arrive in Singapore in batches over several months, MOH said.

The expert committee has assessed that the vaccine is suitable for use in those aged 16 and older.

It also recommended that the Government aims "to achieve as high a level of population coverage" for the vaccination as possible, so as to "markedly reduce the overall proportion of the population that is susceptible to the disease and likelihood of uncontrolled chains of transmission".

"A high vaccination coverage in the population also indirectly protects others who may not be suitable for vaccination yet," the committee said.

MOH said that while Covid-19 vaccination will be voluntary, it "strongly" encourages everyone who is medically eligible to get vaccinated.

"While the current number of cases in the community remains low, the risk for further importation of Covid-19 and community spread will increase as we move into Phase Three and given the global Covid-19 situation," MOH said. "This is especially important in the face of reports surfacing globally about more transmissible strains."