Singapore — All Singaporeans will soon no longer need to schedule a Covid-19 jab for the Pfizer BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine, said the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) group director of the crisis strategy and operations group, Dinesh Vasu Dash.
On Monday (Aug 2), the government announced that anyone over 18 years old can now walk in to get vaccinated without an appointment at 11 community vaccination centres offering the Moderna vaccine. The update applies to all Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders.
Following the announcement, Mr Dinesh said, “It’s a matter of time before that is extended to all Singaporeans across all vaccination centres and polyclinics… When the time is right.”
Mr Dinesh outlined the country’s Covid-19 vaccination programme during the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress held from Aug 3 to 4 virtually.
The webinar features leaders from various areas of expertise, such as healthcare management, supply chain management and enterprise risk management, sharing insights and best practices.
Mr Dinesh said that Singapore aims to fully vaccinate about 80 per cent of the population by early Sept to allow the country a certain degree of herd immunity.
According to MOH on Sunday (Aug 1), about 62 per cent of the population has received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme.
Meanwhile, 77 per cent has received at least one dose, bringing the total doses administered to 7,638,279.
Soon, members of the public could walk in to get jabbed for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available at the 26 vaccination centres islandwide, said Mr Dinesh.
When asked about the timeframe for more foreigners getting vaccinated, Mr Dinesh replied that the next step would be to open the national vaccination programme to short-term visit pass holders, especially the elderly who came to Singapore to visit family and were unable to return to their hometowns due to travel restrictions.
“I think it’s only right, from a public health standpoint, to vaccinate them at some point in time,” he noted in a Straits Times report.
“We are in the process of examining this particular group and looking at how best we can get them onto the vaccination programme as well.”
Mr Dinesh expects the initiative to begin when the country reaches a 70 to 80 per cent vaccination rate, noting that vaccine supplies and capacity would not be constrained then.
During the webinar, Mr Dinesh mentioned how Singapore was able to get people vaccinated without the use of incentives, despite the authorities coming close to considering it.
“I know of certain countries where (those vaccinated) can have a one-day medical leave, and in the US, they give out goodies or doughnuts.”
“I felt that it was very important for us to not send the wrong perspective about vaccinations, particularly since the vaccinations are free anyway. And therefore, in fact, there wasn’t a need for us to use any forms of incentives, be it vouchers, etc.,” he added.
Instead, Singapore used moral suasion to prompt the population to get vaccinated, said Mr Dinesh.
“Hopefully, with non-mRNA vaccines coming on board, that will help to extend its coverage (to those) who’d still be adopting a wait and see approach.” /TISG
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