Coronavirus: Singapore
Singapore setting up paediatric vaccination centres
Staff are trained in vaccinating children, and experts will support each centre
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Paediatric vaccination centres are being set up as Singapore prepares to roll out its vaccination programme to children aged five to 11 later this month.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post yesterday that he visited one of the paediatric vaccination centres - decorated with stickers of cartoon superheroes - that can vaccinate about 1,000 children a day.
The centre, which is under healthcare provider Minmed Group, is gearing up to start work later this month, Mr Ong said.
"Lots of care was taken in designing the centre to clearly separate children and adult lanes. Even the computers used to input children's records are marked differently, with a big superhero sticker," he said.
Parents will be allowed to accompany their children at the centre, he added. Staff at the centre are specially trained in paediatric vaccination, and there will be paediatric experts supporting each vaccination centre.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said last week that more than 300,000 children aged five to 11 will be able to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine from the end of the month.
This is the first Covid-19 vaccine approved by Singapore for use for children in this age group, following a recommendation by the expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination, which the multi-ministry task force handling the pandemic accepted.
Meanwhile, MOH said yesterday that one more local Covid-19 case has tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.
The 42-year-old man is a loading assistant at Changi Airport Terminal 3, and had no contact with flight passengers.
The man, who is fully vaccinated and has mild symptoms, developed a fever on Dec 8 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic, where he was tested for Covid-19. His test result came back positive the next day, and he was placed on home recovery, said MOH.
He was subsequently identified as a close contact of another loading cabin assistant at Changi Airport Terminal 3 who had tested positive earlier for the Omicron variant, and is recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. MOH is ring-fencing the case through contact tracing.
There are 24 confirmed Omicron cases detected in Singapore to date, of which 21 are imported cases and three are local cases.
