Number of home vaccination teams grows from 11 to 33
Published on
20 Aug 2021
Published by
The Straits Times
For seniors who cannot leave their homes, waiting times for Covid-19 jabs are likely to fall significantly now that the number of home vaccination teams has tripled from 11 to 33, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said yesterday.
On Aug 6, he put up a Facebook post to call for doctors and nurses to help vaccinate seniors who are unable to leave their homes, as demand for this service was very high and the waiting time was around eight weeks.
He had also said then that Singapore had vaccinated about 1,200 seniors in their homes so far, and there was a need to do more.
Since then, about 200 doctors and nurses have signed up with the SG Healthcare Corps, said Mr Ong, who was speaking yesterday at a virtual media conference held by the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19 here.
"So, as a result, we used to have 11 home vaccination teams, now we can increase it to 33," he said.
Mr Ong also thanked those who had responded to his call and stepped forward to volunteer their services.
With the nation's high vaccination rate, the vaccine operations will increasingly move "to a retail mode", he said, meaning that the focus would shift to mobile and home vaccination teams.
He also said that the overall vaccination numbers have fallen from a peak of 80,000 a day to about 20,000 a day now.
Therefore, the vaccination centres - most of which are in community clubs - will be progressively consolidated so that residents can gradually get their community club facilities back.
There are now 37 vaccination centres here, 26 of which administer the Pfizer vaccine, while 11 administer the Moderna vaccine.
"But we still need to keep a good number of vaccination centres operating for three purposes: One, to vaccinate the rest of the population (who) have not been vaccinated; two, after we have properly studied the safety and efficacy aspects of the vaccination of children below 12, we should start (vaccinating them) some time in early 2022; and the third is to administer boosters."
Booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines are being studied. A third dose is being considered for those who have severely compromised immune systems - such as transplant patients and those going through cancer treatment - as they cannot produce as many antibodies to fight the coronavirus even after two jabs.
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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