It’s no secret that the Government has been stressing the importance of getting vaccinated in order for Singapore to get back to normal ASAP.
That’s why Singaporeans have been encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as they can.
These efforts have so far borne fruit, as we’ve reached an important milestone: More than 50% of our population has been vaccinated.
While we’re ramping it up as much as possible, we’re just constrained by the availability of vaccine supplies, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said.
Mr Ong announced the good progress in a Facebook post on Saturday (19 Jun), saying he’s happy with the update.
While a bit more than 50% of our population has gotten their 1st dose of a vaccine, the proportion who’re fully vaccinated (i.e. 2 doses) is about 36%.
Mr Ong also elaborated upon something he said during the Multi-Ministry Task Force press conference on Friday (18 Jun).
Covid-19 is likely to be endemic, experts say, basically meaning we won’t be able to get rid it of it for good.
It’ll continue to circulate in the community and even mutate.
That also means we will have to live with the virus by adapting to it.
Despite this, Mr Ong shared more good news: We might have seen the last of the dreaded ‘Circuit Breaker’.
That’s because Singapore’s defences are better now.
Since the last CB, we’ve improved our capability to test, contact trace and isolate very quickly.
However, it all comes back to vaccination: We’ve vaccinated “a good part of our population”, he said.
Though, we’ve achieved good results in vaccination, we should strive for higher if we want to reopen further, Mr Ong said.
That means vaccination rates must increase still.
Just how high? Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who sat down for an exclusive chat with MS News on Saturday (19 Jun) night, outlined the milestones we’re aiming for.
Right now, we’re at 50% who’ve received the 1st dose, but just 36% getting 2 doses.
That’s good, Mr Wong said, but we want to get to 50% of the population who’ve received 2 doses of the vaccine.
That’s half of Singapore fully vaccinated – an important milestone.
He estimated that we might get there by Aug.
The next milestone is for 75% of the population to be fully vaccinated.
Mr Wong hopes we can get there by Oct, or earlier.
As we work towards these milestones, there are also some constraints to work with.
One of these is the supply of vaccines.
Mr Ong has said there’s high global demand for them, but the Government is nevertheless trying to confirm more deliveries.
On that note, Mr Wong said they’re talking to the vaccine manufacturers to see how to bring forward the scheduled deliveries.
Obviously, if we can get our vaccines earlier, we can step up vaccinations for Singaporeans.
Check out MS News’ full livestream with Mr Wong here:
Considering how important the vaccination rate is to Singapore’s reopening, we should go for it as soon as we can.
After all, most of us want things to go back to as close to normal as possible.
Let’s let vaccine supplies be the only thing that’s stopping us from achieving that quickly.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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