Sinovac slots sold online: MOH to take action where warranted

Singapore — After vaccination slots for the Sinovac-CoronaVac jab were being sold online, the Ministry of Health warned that it will be monitoring such activity and that it would “proceed to take enforcement action where warranted”.

While there seem to be no Sinovac vaccine slots available on Tuesday (Aug 24) on the online marketplace Carousell, they had been sighted as recently as last week.

Some slots were being sold at prices between $50 and $80.

“Individuals with booking slots should not exploit the situation and take advantage of people who want to be vaccinated,” a spokesman from MOH told The Straits Times, adding that no complaints have been received by the ministry over the alleged slots sold online.

Unlike the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, Sinovac is not authorised by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and is not considered to be part of the country’s official vaccination programme.

As such, people who receive Sinovac jabs are not covered under the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme, which provides aid in the event that people have adverse effects from their Covid-19 vaccinations.

However, the demand for Sinovac jabs is said to be on the rise even as stocks are running low, which may be the reason for Sinovac slots are being sold online.

Since Sinovac became available in June, Singaporeans have lined up for hours—sometimes even sleeping in the streets overnight—to book appointments for the vaccine shots.

Earlier this month, MOH announced that of the 200,000 doses of Sinovac Singapore obtained, under the Special Access Route (SAR) framework, 170,000 doses had been allocated to 31 approved private healthcare institutions.

This meant that 85,000 individuals had received by Aug 12 “free of charge, based on a two-dose regime per individual for full vaccination.”

As for the other 30,000 doses, these have been put aside for Citizens, Permanent Residents and Long-Term Pass Holders who’ve allergic reactions to mRNA vaccines, “and for other purposes.”

MOH added that “individuals who are allergic to mRNA vaccines will continue to be able to receive Sinovac vaccination and the Ministry of Health (MOH) will separately contact these individuals to arrange for their vaccination appointments.”

The Ministry added that the stock of Sinovac will be depleted but that it had been facilitating private healthcare institutions to order additional supplies, which are expected to arrive within four to six weeks of its Aug 10 announcement. 

Mothership.sg quotes a spokesman from Carousell as stating that the listings for Sinovac slots had been taken down since they are prohibited under the online marketplace’s guidelines concerning listings pertaining to public health. /TISG

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