Vaccination centres in S'pore seeing higher footfall

More people aged 50 and above have gone for their first as well as second Covid-19 booster shots, as vaccination centres saw higher footfall last week than in previous weeks.

Parkway Shenton, which runs a vaccination centre in Hong Kah, said about 30 per cent more people turned up at the centre last week compared with the week before.

Yesterday, when operations ended at 1pm, more than 120 people had taken their booster shots at the Commonwealth joint testing and vaccination centre (JTVC).

The centre also said footfall for the week was double that of the previous week, although it declined to provide exact figures.

The higher numbers come as people aged 50 to 59 were, from June 10, added to the older age groups that are being offered a second booster. There are also 80,000 people aged 60 and older who have yet to take their first booster jabs, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung had said last Monday.

It was a busy first weekend for the new Bukit Merah JTVC, with seven to 10 people already waiting in line outside the centre in Lower Delta Road at 8.45am yesterday, before the centre opened its doors at 9am.

By 10.30am, the centre had seen between 30 and 50 people.

The Bukit Merah centre was one of five new JTVCs that started operations on Thursday, bringing the total number of such facilities to 10.

Kidney transplant patient Katherine Goh, 53, got her fourth shot at Commonwealth JTVC yesterday, but that was her first booster as those with weak immune systems need three shots for their primary vaccination course.

But three weeks after getting her third jab in January this year, she caught the virus.

She tested positive for about three weeks, and also spent a night in hospital when she had chest tightness and breathing difficulties.

Ms Goh, who is unemployed and lives with her husband in Bukit Timah, has had two kidney transplants - one in 2001 and another in 2018. "For me, vaccination is not encouraged, but a necessity," she said.

At the same JTVC, Ms Ng Ai Choo, 59, and her 80-year-old mother received their second booster shots. Ms Ng wanted her mother, Madam Ng Leh Tien, further protected, because she goes for daily physiotherapy at Apex Rehab Centre in Bukit Merah View, and mingles with other seniors.

For seniors aged 80 and older, protection against severe disease from the virus with three doses is lower, and a second booster is needed to protect them further, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has said.

Ms Ng, a housewife, said she was spurred to get her fourth shot as she is wary that another Covid-19 wave may be on the horizon.

Mr Ong had previously warned that Singapore is likely to see another Covid-19 wave in July or August this year. This will be driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants, which are more transmissible, but have not been linked to higher hospitalisation and death rates.

Last Tuesday, MOH said these variants accounted for around 30 per cent of all virus cases in the past week.

As at June 22, 78 per cent of the total population have taken their booster shots.

Mr Karl Kleemeier, 58, was among those who took their second booster shots at Bukit Merah JTVC yesterday.

The head of market data provider Argus Media's Singapore office has been diligent in getting his jabs when the opportunities came, because he knows how potent the virus can be, having been infected while in Saudi Arabia in May 2020.

"I was in hospital for two weeks. I had pneumonia, fever, night sweats, and I was on oxygen," he recalled.