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S’pore not under pressure to accelerate vaccine programme due to low community cases: PM Lee
By JUSTIN ONG
Published MARCH 14, 2021
Updated MARCH 14, 2021
There has been time to explain Covid-19 vaccination to people here and persuade them to get inoculated, said PM Lee in a BBC interview
China’s Sinovac vaccine will be used if proven to be safe and effective, and not based on nationality, he added
PM Lee said that he hopes that international borders can open by the end of the year or next year, if not sooner.
SINGAPORE — Singapore has not been under “quite as much pressure” to get the population vaccinated quickly, as there have been fewer domestic cases here, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Mr Lee said this during an interview with the BBC’s Talking Business Asia programme on Tuesday (March 2), in response to a question on why Singapore has not moved as quickly as countries such as Britain and Israel with its vaccination strategy
“We have not been under quite as much pressure because we did not have so many cases domestically,” said PM Lee “There was time for us to explain to people, persuade them, reassure them, and dispel their worries and anxieties, and to do it in a systematic way”.
As of March 7, more than 596,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Singapore. In total, about 379,000 people have received one dose, and more than 217,000 have completed the two-dose vaccination programme.
Currently, vaccines from only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been approved for use here. Both require two doses.
Frontline workers such as those working at Singapore’s borders, hospital workers and those in the construction industry have been given priority to receive the jabs.
“In our case, our society’s infection rates are very low, but we are at risk from our borders, from the frontline,” said PM Lee. “For us, that was our first priority — to take care of them.”
He added that Singapore is also “going broadly by age” in its vaccination approach.
Over 55,000 seniors aged 70 and up have received their first dose of the vaccine, and all seniors aged 60 to 69 will be offered the Covid-19 vaccine before the end of March.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/spore-not-under-pressure-accelerate-vaccine-programme-due-low-community-cases-pm-lee?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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weehingthong 