Singapore to start vaccinating school children en masse from next month
- Bookings for students to get their COVID vaccine will open June 1 with priority given to those sitting for national examinations
- Singapore is likely to ease COVID restrictions in mid-June as it sees a new outbreak driven by variants coming under control
Singapore is likely to ease restrictions in mid-June as it sees a new outbreak driven by variants coming under control, and will start vaccinating school children en masse next month as the city state races to be the first in the region to emerge from Covid-19 and reopen to the world.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday that if the number of community cases falls further, authorities should be able to ease curbs that had been put in place for four weeks after June 13. Bookings for students to get their shots will open June 1 with priority given to those sitting for national examinations, and inoculation for young adults aged 39 years old and younger will take place after that around mid-June.
“Barring another super-spreader or big cluster, we should be on track to bring this outbreak under control,” Lee said in a national address. “We will know for sure in another week or so.” In his address, Lee also stressed the importance of testing, contact tracing and vaccination.
Vaccination Plans
Lee said the nation’s target is to get two-thirds of its residents vaccinated with at least the first dose and it should be able to do this by early July, provided supplies come in as planned.
He flagged there will be faster vaccine deliveries over the next two months, allowing the country to further speed up inoculation. Singapore earlier said it will lengthen the time between vaccination doses to six to eight weeks, in an effort to stretch out limited supply.
“Everyone who is eligible for a vaccination and wants one should be able to get at least their first jab by National Day,” which falls on August 9, Lee said.
Lee’s speech comes as Singapore tries to stamp out a resurgence in infections while aiming to ramp up vaccinations in order to be able to reopen the economy. The country had been looking at various ways to regain some normalcy, from trying to get a travel bubble with Hong Kong off the ground to attracting international conferences like the World Economic Forum. All these had to be scrapped this month as cases in the city rose, forming clusters at the airport, a public hospital and shopping malls.
The spike in cases, including some from a more contagious variant of the virus first identified in India, prompted authorities to reimpose some lockdown-like conditions for a month from May 16. The measures include a ban on dining-in, a return to work-from-home and limiting outdoor group sizes to a maximum of just two.
The country reported 16 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Monday, with the majority linked to earlier infections.
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First Published:31 May 2021, 02:09 PM IST
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