SINGAPORE – More than 16,400 doses of the Moderna/Spikevax vaccine have been administered to children between six months and four years old since its roll-out in October 2022 for this age group, with eight adverse events reported.
More than 81,400 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine have been given to children aged five to 11 years, and there have been 26 reports of adverse events.
The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said in a statement on its website on Thursday that serious adverse events after Covid-19 vaccination in children aged six months to 11 years are rare.
Based on the assessment of current local and overseas data, no new safety signals have been identified with the use of Covid-19 vaccines in this age group, HSA added.
The Moderna/Spikevax Bivalent Original/Omicron Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out in Singapore on Oct 14, 2022, and a total of 482,666 doses have been administered.
The Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty Bivalent Original/Omicron Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out in Singapore on Dec 12, 2022, and 202,382 doses of this vaccine have been administered.
There were 59 adverse reactions, or a reporting rate of 0.012 per cent, among those who got the Moderna/Spikevax bivalent shot.
For people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty bivalent vaccine, there were 11 adverse events, or a 0.005 per cent reporting rate.
Adverse events reported for the bivalent mRNA vaccines were similar to those for the monovalent vaccines, involving mostly non-serious issues like allergic reactions that included rash and eyelid swelling, fever, giddiness, chest discomfort or pain, syncope (fainting and a brief loss of consciousness) and increase in blood pressure.
As at Dec 31, 2022, a total of 40,873 doses of the Nuvaxovid vaccine have been administered. The reporting rate of serious adverse events was 0.02 per cent, or nine reports.
A total of 722,419 doses of inactivated Covid-19 vaccines (Sinovac-CoronaVac and Sinopharm) have been administered as at Dec 31, 2022. The reporting rate of serious adverse events remained rare, at 0.006 per cent, or 40 reports.
As is the case with the monovalent mRNA vaccines, there have been no new safety findings for the inactivated vaccines since the last update published in September 2022.
Based on the local adverse event reports, most of these events are largely expected from vaccination and reflect what has been reported globally.
Overall, based on the data to date, according to HSA’s website, the benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty, Moderna/Spikevax, Nuvaxovid and Sinovac-CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccines continue to outweigh their known risks.
Correction note: An earlier version of this story said there were 59 adverse events after more than 16,000 doses of Moderna/Spikevax were given to children between six months and four years old. This has been corrected. There were eight adverse events. We are sorry for the error.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional information on the number of reports of adverse reactions from the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine given to children aged five to 11 years old.
