Vaccination drive to focus on 140,000 seniors 70 and older
Published on
17 Jul 2021
Published by
The Straits Times
Health Ministry, volunteers, mobile units will keep reaching out to them in coming weeks
The country's vaccination programme in the coming weeks will focus on 140,000 unvaccinated seniors aged 70 and above, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said yesterday.
This represents about 29 per cent of the seniors in that age group.
Mr Ong was giving an update on vaccination figures at a vir-tual media conference hosted by the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19.
Noting that about 50 per cent of the local population would have received both doses of the vaccine by next week, he said: "We are well on track by National Day to have two-thirds, or at least two-thirds of our population, vaccinated."
He added that over the past two weeks, about 80 per cent of people in all age groups have been vaccinated or have secured a booking, "except the group that need it the most" - those aged 70 and above.
Mr Ong said that only 71 per cent of this group have been vaccinated or have made their appointments.
The Ministry of Health has been reaching out to seniors to ramp up the vaccination rate.
On Wednesday, letters signed by Singapore's director of medical services Kenneth Mak were sent to general practi-tioners and primary care pro-viders to persuade seniors above the age of 70 to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Mr Ong said: "Our volunteers from the Agency for Integrated Care, the Silver Generation Office and the People's Association will continue to reach out to our seniors, knocking on their doors, visiting them at home, addressing their concerns and sharing with them the benefits of vaccination."
He added that when seniors have been convinced, the volunteers will help make arrangements to escort them to vaccination centres if they have mobility issues.
The minister said that so far, these volunteers have escorted seniors to vaccination centres on about 100 occasions.
As at the end of last month, the Silver Generation Office has reached out to more than 650,000 seniors nationwide, Mr Ong said.
Mobile vaccination units have also been deployed to reach out to as many seniors as possible, with 10 teams rotating around various towns with high numbers of unvaccinated seniors.
Mr Ong said these towns include Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Kallang, Woodlands, Bedok, Hougang, Sengkang, Tampines and Yishun.
"In the coming weeks, we are going all out to try to reach out to this group of seniors in order to protect them," he added.
The minister also called on the public to persuade unvaccinated seniors to get their jabs, saying that the benefits of doing so "far outweigh the costs".
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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