Covid-19 Vaccine Expert Committee Recommends Vaccinating Frontliners & Vulnerable
While the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has arrived in Singapore, there’s perhaps still some stuff left to clarify about the mRNA vaccine.
An Expert Committee was set up to determine our vaccine strategy, and on 24 Dec submitted their recommendations to the government.
On Sunday (27 Dec), the Ministry of Health (MOH) published these recommendations set by the Expert Committee, led by Assoc Professor Benjamin Ong.
In it they recommended that both frontliners and those aged 70 and up should get the vaccine first.
They also say that the vaccine will be suitable for those aged 16 and above.
Covid-19 vaccine suitable for those 16 and up
First off, the Expert Committee has reviewed the clinical data of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
They assessed that it’s suitable for people aged 16 and older in Singapore.
The committee took a look at the following criteria:
- vaccine safety
- vaccine efficacy
- vaccine tolerability
- data adequacy of clinical trials
With a 95% effectiveness rate and good safety profile, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine passes the standards required by other registered vaccines.
The committee will continue to monitor the efficacy of the vaccine in the long term.
Everyone should be vaccinated if eligible
There’s been talk of achieving herd immunity in Singapore, and to get this, some have estimated that 70%-80% of the population needs to be vaccinated.
While the Expert Committee hasn’t set an exact number, they do recommend high vaccination coverage to protect others who can’t be vaccinated yet.
Coverage would also prevent many who are at risk of contracting the disease and stop clusters from forming.
Although vaccination isn’t compulsory, they do recommend everyone living in Singapore, including long-term residents, to get vaccinated when more quantities are available.
Covid-19 vaccine priority goes to frontliners & vulnerable
There isn’t a large supply of vaccines at the moment, so some groups will get the vaccine before others.
They include:
- frontliners, at high risk of catching Covid-19
- those aged 70 years and older
- those aged 60 years and older
The reason for this priority is that patients aged 70 years and above have worse health outcomes than those in the 60-69 age bracket.
The Expert Committee also recommends that 5% of vaccine stocks are set aside for people “who are of critical importance to the functioning of Singapore”.
They gave a few examples of such people, including personnel involved in ensuring that Singapore’s water and utilities, and other nationally essential services are not disrupted.
This would help to ensure that Singapore continues to function in case of an outbreak.
However, the Expert Committee said they’d leave the identification of the specific groups in this category to the Government.
Mask-wearing, other safe distancing should continue
Meanwhile, we should continue wearing masks and keeping to other safe distancing measures.
This is because we’re unsure if the vaccine will prevent infection immediately.
In light of this, they do recommend that everyone gets vaccinated if and when they are able to. This would also protect others who can’t get vaccinated.
Until a significant number of the population is vaccinated, we also must still keep with current safe distancing measures and mask-wearing, they said.
You can read the detailed recommendations from the Expert Committee here.
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