Coronavirus: Singapore nurses inoculated as Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine roll-out begins
- Singapore is the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine
- It’s also signed advance deals and made early down payments on several other vaccine candidates, including those being developed by Moderna and Sinovac
Sarah Lim, a senior staff nurse at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, was the first of more than 30 staff at the centre who are being vaccinated on Wednesday, the health ministry said. They will return for the second dose of the vaccine on January 20.
“I feel very grateful and thankful for being the first to be vaccinated in Singapore,” said Lim, who helps screen suspected Covid-19 cases. In recorded remarks provided by the health ministry, she said she hoped to encourage others to get vaccinated.
Singapore is the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. It has also signed advance purchase agreements and made early down payments on several other vaccine candidates, including those being developed by Moderna and Sinovac.
It expects to have enough vaccine doses for all 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021.
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Singapore begins national Covid-19 vaccination programme
Singapore acted swiftly after the first cases of the virus were reported and although it was blindsided by tens of thousands of cases in migrant workers dormitories, it has reported just a handful of new cases over the last two months. The country has one of the world’s lowest Covid-19 fatality rates; only 29 people have died of the virus.