Jump in vaccination bookings with more slots offered

When he heard that more vaccination slots would be made available, Mr Wren Chee, 21, immediately moved his vaccination appointment forward by about two weeks.

Mr Chee, who is waiting to enrol in Nanyang Technological University, received his first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine yesterday. It was originally scheduled for July 12.

The national vaccination programme was accelerated from yesterday and will see up to 80,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses given daily, up from about 47,000 a day.

One healthcare provider, which runs three vaccination centres, said it has seen the number of appointments double.

The Ministry of Health said last Thursday that another 500,000 new slots would be added in the next few days for people to make their first-dose appointments from now to the middle of next month.

The multi-ministry task force on Covid-19 said last Thursday that the ramp-up in vaccination was made possible because of the delivery of vaccine supplies being brought forward.

This allowed Singapore to set a new target of having two-thirds of its population fully vaccinated by National Day, on Aug 9.

Mr Chee said: "I'll be interacting with more people as I'm signing up for driving lessons in July and will start school in August. So, I felt (the earlier vaccination dates) will work much better for me."

Healthcare providers who operate vaccination centres told The Sunday Times they are well prepared to cope with the increased load by tapping additional manpower. There are 40 centres, 22 Public Health Preparedness Clinics and 20 polyclinics under the national vaccination programme.

Ms Chan Wei Ling, chief executive of specialist centres at Thomson Medical, said that after the Ministry of Health's call for those with later vaccination dates to bring their appointments forward, the number of appointments filled across all three Thomson Medical vaccination centres doubled.

It runs three vaccination centres at the Potong Pasir, Bishan and Senja-Cashew community clubs (CCs). Ms Chan said each centre was managing about 1,000 appointments a day, but all three are now running at full capacity.

Ms Chan said: "We have deployed an additional eight to 10 staff at each centre to manage the surge in appointments. They will supplement a variety of roles ranging from screeners to ushers and nurses."

A spokesman for Fullerton Health, which runs 10 vaccination centres, including the ones at Jalan Besar and Buona Vista CCs, said it might increase the number of slots by up to 50 per cent daily.

Raffles Medical Group, which runs 15 vaccination centres, including the ones at Tanjong Pagar and Marine Parade CCs, said each centre can provide up to 2,000 jabs daily and has a network of doctors, nurses and healthcare staff to tap.

When The Sunday Times visited the centre at Potong Pasir CC yesterday morning, a steady stream of people came to get their shots despite a downpour.

Mr Jackson Siah, 31, who was there for his first dose, runs a hotel with his family. He said: "The economy has taken a huge hit since the pandemic. So, with more people getting vaccinated, we can achieve herd immunity and things may slowly go back to normal."

Ms Audinatasha Mahmud, 22, who declined to reveal her occupation, was also there for her first dose. "It makes more sense to utilise what the Government is doing for us, rather than do nothing and complain that the situation isn't getting any better," she said.

When The Sunday Times visited the centre at Taman Jurong CC, there were few people in the morning, but the crowd grew after noon.

Dr Asok Kurup, who chairs the Academy of Medicine's Chapter of Infectious Disease Physicians, said: "We may not have a perfect world, but if we have more people vaccinated, we stand a better chance of living with the virus."