Seniors aged 70 and above to get COVID-19 vaccination letters over next 3 weeks: MOH

SINGAPORE: Seniors 70 years old and above will receive COVID-19 vaccination letters over the next three weeks, while inoculation for those aged between 60 and 69 will start around end-March, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (Feb 19). 

It was announced previously that COVID-19 vaccination for seniors in the community will begin islandwide from Monday, following pilots conducted in Tanjong Pagar and Ang Mo Kio.

More than 5,000 seniors from the two towns have received their vaccinations as of Feb 18.

Singapore began its COVID-19 vaccination exercise on Dec 30, with healthcare workers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases the first to get the shots.

As of Thursday, about 250,000 people in Singapore have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, said MOH in a press release. Of those, 110,000 have received the second dose and completed the full vaccination regimen, it said.

By early April, Singapore expects to inoculate another 1 million people against COVID-19, said co-chair of the COVID-19 ministerial task force Lawrence Wong on Friday.

This will take the total number of people in Singapore vaccinated against COVID-19 to about 1.25 million people.

"PERSONALISED LETTERS"

Over the next three weeks, those aged 70 and above can expect to receive "personalised letters" inviting them to sign up for vaccinations by the first week of March, said MOH in a press release. 

"We will start by inviting seniors living near polyclinics or vaccination centres, so that they can be conveniently vaccinated at a vaccination site near their home," the ministry said.

"By mid-March when we have opened a vaccination centre in each town, all seniors will be able to receive their vaccination," it added.

"We expect all the letters to reach our seniors aged 70 years and above by the first week of March."

READ: No indication that COVID-19 vaccine caused cardiac arrest in elderly Singaporean man - MOH

Next in line for vaccination will be seniors aged 60 to 69, who will receive their invitation letters around the middle of March. Their vaccination will start from around the end of March.

Seniors will be able to schedule their vaccinations at any of the vaccination centres, 20 polyclinics, or 22 Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs) operating as vaccination sites. 

Those who require assistance booking their vaccination appointments can bring their invitation letter to any community centre, where staff members will be on hand to help them.

"As the letters will be mailed based on official residential addresses, seniors are encouraged to update their residential address using the change of address e-service via the relevant government websites, so that letters will be delivered to their place of residence," said MOH.

PACE OF VACCINATION PROGRAMME "CONTINGENT ON SUPPLY"

Speaking to reporters while visiting a vaccination centre, Mr Wong told reporters that the pace of Singapore's vaccination programme is "contingent on supply more than anything else".

"That’s not something to be taken for granted," he said.

Mr Wong, who is also Minister for Education, said the supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine faced delays “earlier this year”.

READ: Singapore receives its first shipment of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

He added that the delays were not “so much because of export restrictions, but because there has been a surge in global demand for these vaccines”, resulting in the company needing more time to ramp up manufacturing capacity.

But with Singapore receiving its first shipment of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on Feb 17, there are now “some diversification benefits” said Mr Wong.

Another shipment is expected to come in March and with the two shipments, “we expect to be able to distribute vaccines to another 1 million persons by around the end of March or early April", he added.

READ: How COVID-19 vaccines are transported to Singapore and stored here

"If all goes according to plan, then we can progressively roll out to the other age groups, beyond March," said Mr Wong. 

"We will continue to monitor the supply of vaccine because that's the critical issue that will enable us to get vaccines out ... We will try our best to ensure that we can get these vaccines to Singapore," he added.

The minister said authorities are also continuing to look out for other vaccine options, and will do "everything we can" to vaccinate everyone in Singapore by the end of the year.

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