Singapore — After the announcement that the Sinovac-Coronavac Covid-19 vaccine will be made available as an alternative to mRNA vaccines, Singaporeans and Chinese nationals have begun queuing to get jabbed despite expressed concerns regarding its efficacy.
On Jun 16, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that 24 private clinics were selected to offer the Sinovac vaccine under the Special Access Route, which allows vaccines included in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Emergency Use List to be administered.
The approved clinics are permitted to administer the vaccine to Singapore citizens, permanent residents, and persons holding long-term passes, tapping into the country’s existing stock of 200,000 doses of the vaccine.
The cost of one dose of the vaccine ranges from S$10 to S$25, which will cover vaccine administration fees as the vaccine itself will be provided to the clinics at no cost, said MOH.
As early as Friday (Jun 18), Singaporeans and Chinese nationals have begun queuing at the approved private clinics to get inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP).
“I am from China, and I love my country. Of course, I will take the Sinovac vaccine,” said 50-year-old Sun Yan Hui, who filed a day off to queue for the vaccine, knowing it would be in high demand.
Another Chinese native said she trusted Chinese vaccines more as they have been used on more than a billion people in her home country, including her family and village, who did not experience any side effects.
According to This Week In Asia, the phone lines of all approved private clinics were busy on multiple occasions after the announcement of its availability.
Infectious disease expert at the Rophi Clinic, Leong Hoe Nam, shared that they have 1,000 people on the waiting list even though they were only allocated 200 doses.
He noted that the Sinovac vaccine offered an alternative to those against mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines currently approved in Singapore.
Another clinic, StarMed Specialist Centre, said that it plans to place regular orders for the vaccine as they have over 3,000 bookings for the 400 doses allocated to the clinic.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s health officials announced on Jun 18 that they were “unfortunately” still unable to approve and include the Sinovac vaccine in the national vaccination programme due to lacking data submitted by the manufacturer to local regulators.
Associate Professor and MOH’s director of medical services, Kenneth Mak, said that Singapore is also monitoring the experience of countries like Indonesia, which has used Sinovac on a “larger proportion” of its population.
Indonesia recently reported that 350 medical professionals were infected with Covid-19 despite being vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine.
“So it does give the impression that the efficacy of different vaccines will vary quite significantly,” said Assoc Prof Mak.
Covid-19 pandemic recovery may depend on the vaccines given
A New York Times article on Wednesday (Jun 23) noted that some nations that relied on China-made vaccines are now faced with a harsh reality of a spike in cases, particularly from new Covid-19 variants.
Mongolia, Seychelles, Chile, and Bahrain, some of the countries mentioned in the report, have relied on Chinese vaccines against the Covid-19 vaccines but are now seeing increased community transmissions.
About 50 to 68 per cent of the populations of Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain, and Mongolia have been fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines.
Still, they are among the top 10 countries facing the worst Covid-19 outbreaks, reported NYT.
“If the vaccines are sufficiently good, we should not see this pattern. The Chinese have a responsibility to remedy this,” said a University of Hong Kong virologist Jin Dongyan.
In response to the claims, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it did not see a connection between its vaccines and the recent outbreaks.
The ministry cited the WHO, wherein the countries have not reached sufficient vaccination rates to prevent outbreaks.
“Relevant reports and data also show that many countries that use Chinese-made vaccines have expressed that they are safe and reliable, and have played a good role in their epidemic prevention efforts,” the ministry noted.
/TISG
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