SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that Singapore has received its first shipment of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

In a press release on Wednesday, MOH said that the Sinovac vaccine has yet to be authorised for use here by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

Sinovac has started submitting initial data and HSA is awaiting the company’s submission of all the necessary information in order to carry out a “thorough scientific assessment of the manufacturing process, safety and efficacy of the vaccine under the Pandemic Special Access Route”, the ministry said.

The Pandemic Special Access Route refers to an interim authorisation that “enables regulatory agilities in responding to an emergency that may pose serious threats to the public, such as in the situation of a pandemic”, HSA stated on its website.

Separately, Singapore received another shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, MOH said.

“We will continue to monitor our supplies closely to meet our target of vaccinating all Singaporeans and long-term residents in Singapore by (the) end of 2021.”

Last Wednesday, the first shipment of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine arrived here ahead of its expected delivery next month. 

The Moderna vaccine was granted interim authorisation for use here earlier in February.