Singapore is bracing for “greater impact” on certain segments of its economy with the latest round of tightened Covid-19 measures, but still expects positive GDP growth this year.
Responding to queries at the multi-ministry taskforce press conference, newly-appointed Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said when the Ministry of Trade and Industry in April projected GDP to grow at the higher end of the 4-6% range, that was a time where “we could see there was a certain momentum to economic activities recovering. It's very hard to say how things will pan out going forward.”
He said the Ministry of Finance and MTI will monitor the economic situation very closely, and will see whether or not there is a need for additional help, for affected businesses as well as workers.
“I think there will still be continued recovery in certain segments, but with the latest measures...depending on how long this will last, how long some of the businesses will have to close, there will certainly be an impact.” Wong added.
Separately, Singapore’s Health Ministry has announced that the interval between vaccination doses will be changed from the current three to four weeks to six to eight weeks.
This is as the country expands its vaccination rollout to those aged 40 to 44, and the new interval will apply to people who are registering for their vaccination dates from 19 May.
Those who already have an appointment for their second dose will not be affected, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said.
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The health ministry pointed out that Singapore’s supply of vaccines has been “steadily coming in, but remains limited given high global demand.”
Ong said the move was so as to give as much of the population “as much protection as possible.” According to Singapore’s expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination, the maximum interval between the first and second dose could be extended up to eight weeks to “maximize vaccine coverage without materially impacting the eventual overall immune response.”
Studies by the expert committee have shown that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine can provide about 46% to 92% of protection against Covid-19.
“The endpoint is the same, in the end, everyone will get two doses,” said Ong. “But now we prioritize giving out more first doses early, and then more second doses later.”
“The difference is that instead of having a good number of people getting maximum protection. We make sure we get the maximum number of people good protection,” he added.
With the new strategy, Singapore will be able to have 4.3 million people have at least one shot of the vaccine by end-July, compared to 3.9 million if the status quo was maintained.
The Republic’s Health Sciences Authority also has granted emergency approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be used in children aged 12 to 15 years old. Before this, it was only approved for use for those 16 years old and above.
HSA said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine demonstrated a high vaccine efficacy consistent with that observed in the adult population.
Its safety profile is also consistent with the known safety profile in the adult population and the standards set for other registered vaccines used in the immunisation against other diseases, they pointed out.
