Siblings of a child with a Covid-19 vaccination appointment can walk in for their jab

SINGAPORE — To make it more convenient for parents or guardians with more than one child or ward aged five to 11 years old, siblings of a child with a Covid-19 vaccination appointment will be allowed to get their jabs as walk-ins.

In a statement on Monday (Jan 3), the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that the arrangement, which will help to optimise available vaccination capacity, will be available Mondays to Thursdays at the 14 vaccination centres that offer paediatric vaccinations from Jan 10.

Those who hope to utilise this arrangement should however arrive at the vaccination centre by 7pm on these days, said MOE.

MOE added it is currently unable to accommodate such an arrangement on Fridays to Sundays due to high demand in appointment bookings for the next few weekends. 

The ministry added that it encourages parents or guardians who have booked separate appointments for different children or wards to keep only one desired slot and cancel the remaining bookings on the National Appointment System. 

“We seek the understanding and cooperation of parents to ensure we can provide a smooth and orderly vaccination process for all our children, and will continue to work with MOH to consider further operational enhancements to the paediatric vaccination arrangements,” the ministry said.

In its statement, MOE added that as of Jan 2 more than six in 10 pupils in Primary 4 to 6 of MOE primary schools have registered for their vaccinations.

Another 9,000 children aged nine to 11 who are not in MOE primary schools have registered their interest to be vaccinated. 

From Jan 5, about 110,000 parents or guardians of Primary 1 to 3 pupils in MOE primary schools can expect to progressively receive a unique link via SMS to book a vaccination appointment and from Jan 6, parents or guardians of all remaining children aged five to eight may proceed to register their interest for vaccination appointment, said MOE.