Singapore among first in the world to vaccinate 12-18 year olds

SINGAPORE: Singapore is all set to open its COVID-19 vaccination programme for adolescents from Tuesday, June 1. With this, the city is aiming to help contain the latest outbreak of coronavirus infections that infected adolescents. The city-state is simultaneously stepping up testing and tracing of COVID-19 infections.

Singapore has thus emerged among the first countries in the world to offer vaccines to teenagers before completing inoculation of adults. During a speech on May 31, Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, said that the city-state should be able to trace, isolate, and treat the COVID-19 cases that emerge, and prevent a severe and disastrous outbreak, as long as it’s population is majorly vaccinated. He added that every Singaporean, who is eligible for a vaccination and wants to get administered with one, should be able to get at least their first jab by the country’s national day, which falls on August 9. Singapore has been administering the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to its people.

According to Ministry of Health, Singapore, approximately one-third of its population has received at least the first jab of COVID-19 vaccine. Singapore had re-imposed some restrictions on social gatherings in the month of May, the toughest seen since exiting a lockdown last year, to combat a recent spike in local COVID-19 infections. Lee said that the nation is looking forward to easing the restrictions in two weeks if the situation continues to improve. In another related announcement made on Monday, May 31, Lee said that said the government will now allow private healthcare providers to access other COVID-19 vaccines that are on the World Health Organization’s emergency use listing, such as shots from Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm. He further informed of the confirmation of faster deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to the country over the next two months.