Coronavirus Vaccines

Singapore on the lookout for more vaccine options: Lawrence Wong

Above and left: People turning up to receive their Covid-19 vaccination jabs at the Jalan Besar Community Club yesterday. Having more than one approved vaccine provides the country some sort of insurance as Singapore will not need to rely on a single
Above: People turning up to receive their Covid-19 vaccination jabs at the Jalan Besar Community Club yesterday. Having more than one approved vaccine provides the country some sort of insurance as Singapore will not need to rely on a single supplier, said Mr Lawrence Wong. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
Above and left: People turning up to receive their Covid-19 vaccination jabs at the Jalan Besar Community Club yesterday. Having more than one approved vaccine provides the country some sort of insurance as Singapore will not need to rely on a single
Above People turning up to receive their Covid-19 vaccination jabs at the Jalan Besar Community Club yesterday. Having more than one approved vaccine provides the country some sort of insurance as Singapore will not need to rely on a single supplier, said Mr Lawrence Wong. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

Singapore continues to be on the look out for more vaccine options even though shipments for the approved vaccines - Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna - are coming in now.

Having more than one approved vaccine provides the country some sort of insurance as Singapore will not need to rely on a single supplier, co-chair of the Covid-19 multiministry task force Lawrence Wong said yesterday during a visit to the Jalan Besar Community Club.

A good supply of vaccines will largely determine the rate of the country's vaccination programme, added Mr Wong, who is Education Minister.

"We are pushing out the vaccines as soon as we get the supplies, so the pace at which we can proceed with our vaccination programme really is contingent on our supply, more than anything else," he said.

But supply uncertainties remain, given high global demand, Mr Wong cautioned. He cited an example earlier this year when there were delays in the supplies of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech.

"It wasn't so much because of export restrictions but because there has been a surge in global demand for these vaccines, and the company just has had to take more time to ramp up manufacturing capacity," Mr Wong said.

Supply bottlenecks could also be caused by a stoppage in the manufacturing plant, or an export restriction, or other logistical issues, he noted.

"But we are happy now that we not only have Pfizer, we also have Moderna, so we have some diversification benefits. The supplies have come in in February, and we are expecting another supply coming through every month," Mr Wong said.

However, if something were to happen that causes not just one but both supplies of Pfizer and Moderna to be disrupted, in the worst-case scenario, Singapore might have no choice but to either apply some brakes to the vaccine programme or even temporarily stop it, use up all the existing supplies, and continue only when new supplies come in, Mr Wong said.

Apart from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Singapore has also made advance purchase agreements for China's Sinovac vaccine. However, Sinovac is yet to be approved as more data is still pending for the Health Sciences Authority to ensure it is safe, Mr Wong added.

"Beyond Sinovac, we continue to look at other options, and so that search for other vaccine options continues," he said.

"We are not stopping at just three vaccines."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 20, 2021, with the headline Singapore on the lookout for more vaccine options: Lawrence Wong. Subscribe