Singapore’s multi ministry task force (MTF) has announced the acceleration of the country’s Covid-19 vaccination programme, with daily dosage to nearly double from May.
At the MTF briefing held on June 24, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the Republic will accelerate the programme and will be able to administer up to 80,000 daily doses, up from 47,000 now and around 40,000 in May 2021.
As of 23 June, Ong said Singapore has administered more than 5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Around 3 million individuals have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, of whom about 2 million individuals have received their second dose and completed the full vaccination regimen.
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Ong said he expects to add another 500,000 new first dose appointments in the next few days for slots from now till mid-July, with more additional slots in the subsequent weeks.
He did highlight that this is if supplies continue to arrive as planned, and added that Singapore will be able to substantially cover most of the population with a first dose sometime in July.
When that happens, Singapore will review the current dose interval of six to eight weeks, with a view to shorten it to four weeks, and more details will be announced when ready.
From July 2, Singapore will then be extending the national vaccination programme to the rest of the population, including all Permanent Residents and long-term pass holders in Singapore aged 12 to 39 years.
These individuals can register interest from July 2, and will be progressively invited to book their vaccination appointments.
At the press conference, Ong also revealed that Singapore had signed a pre-purchase agreement with US biotech firm Novavax for its vaccine, and “encouraging results” from its clinical trials were seen.
However, he pointed out that as the vaccine is still undergoing Phase 3 trials, the shipments will arrive towards the end of the year, but Singapore is anticipating Novavax’s application for regulatory approval.
Notably, the Novavax vaccine is a so-called protein subunit vaccine, which is similar to the modern flu vaccine, HPV, and Hepatitis B vaccines.
This is different from the mRNA vaccine, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which Ong said may make this suitable for those who are unable to take the mRNA vaccines.
