Singapore to Get Pfizer Vaccine by End December
[Image: Time Magazine}
Singapore is to receive its first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine by the end of this month and plans to offer it on a free and voluntary basis to the entire population before the second half of 2021, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on Monday.
Lee said his team would be among the first to receive the vaccine to “show you, especially seniors like me, that we believe the vaccines are safe”.
Other vaccines would also arrive “in the coming months” and there would be enough to cover the city state’s entire 5.7 million population by the third quarter of 2021, Lee added.
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Lee, speaking in a televised national address, also said the city state would further ease restrictions from December 28 in a sign the country had passed a milestone in its virus fight.
From that date, social gatherings of up to eight people will be allowed, up from five at present, as the country enters its third and final phase of reopening after an eight-week partial lockdown.
Capacity restrictions for public areas including shopping malls, attractions, and places of worship will also be relaxed in phase three.
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Lee said the entire adult population should be vaccinated, but that it would be on a voluntary basis.
The vaccine would be free for all Singaporeans and long-term residents, he said, with priority given to those at “greatest risk”, including health care workers, the elderly and vulnerable.
This was Lee’s fifth address to the nation since the coronavirus outbreak hit Singapore on January 23. As of Sunday, the city state had 58,320 cases, with 29 fatalities from complications due to the coronavirus.
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However, most recent cases have been imported and the number of community cases has largely stabilised in the past month.
In November there were just 11 locally transmitted cases.
This was a sharp turnaround from April, when there was a dramatic surge in cases among foreign workers. That month, the country entered a partial lockdown in which most workplaces and schools were closed and only businesses providing essential services, such as food and groceries, remained open.
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The “circuit breaker” measures ended in June, since when the country has been in the second phase of its three-tiered reopening, under which retail outlets, cinemas and restaurants have reopened, albeit with distancing measures and a cap of five people per table.
The health ministry said the move to ease restrictions came after several conditions were met, including the ramping up of testing capacity to 50,000 polymerase chain reaction tests a day and the increased adoption of the country’s contract tracing app.
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Even with Monday’s announcement, Lee said the battle was “far from won” and he urged Singaporeans not to hold big parties as though the virus was gone.
“The Covid-19 virus has not been eradicated. There is a long way to go. Around the world, the pandemic is still raging,” he said, adding that fresh waves of infections around the world meant the city state had to reopen its borders in a controlled and safe way.
Top officials also shared more about the country’s vaccination plans during a virtual press conference held after the prime minister’s speech. Kenneth Mak, the health ministry’s director of medical services, said the vaccine was not recommended for pregnant women, immuno-compromised patients, and those below the age of 16, but stressed that Singaporeans who were medically eligible should get vaccinated.
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Asked why the vaccine was not made compulsory, health minister Gan Kim Yong said the authorities wanted to “respect people’s choices”, but added that the health ministry would launch a public education campaign to educate the public about the benefits of the vaccine. The uptake rate, he said, should be “as high as possible”.
Singapore has said it has made advance purchase agreements with other promising vaccine candidates, including Moderna and Sinovac, but its health sciences authority has only granted approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech one so far.
Gan, the health minister, said he expected more vaccines to be authorised as the city state would want a diversified vaccine pool.
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SOURCE
Author: Dewey Sim
Publication: South China Morning Post
Title: Singapore to get Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by end of December; plans to vaccinate all on free but voluntary basis by Q3, 2021
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