Covid-19 fully-vaccinated status in Singapore to expire if booster not taken within 270 days

SINGAPORE will require its population to take a booster shot within 270 days after the last dose of their primary Covid-19 vaccination series, in order to still be considered as fully vaccinated beyond this period.

This requirement will apply from Feb 14 and is based on recommendations by the expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination (EC19V), the Republic's Covid-19 multi-ministry taskforce said during a briefing on Wednesday (Jan 5).

Fully-vaccinated status has implications for an individual's treatment under vaccination-differentiated safe management measures, such as entry to venues and attendance at events.

The announcement comes amid a growing number of Omicron cases in the Republic. There have been 2,252 Omicron cases detected to date, with the authorities expecting an Omicron wave "quite soon".

"International data has also shown that protection against the Omicron variant from a primary vaccination series is weaker compared to that against the Delta variant, while boosters increase the protection against infection and severe illness from Omicron," the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement.

Currently, 42 per cent of the population have received their booster doses, while the fully-vaccinated rate stands at 87 per cent.

"Even as we accelerate the pace of vaccination and boostering, we must not lose our advantage over the virus, and we need to keep our wall of resilience strong," said Health Minister and taskforce co-chair Ong Ye Kung, adding that the authorities have been keeping a close watch on the immunity levels of various vaccinated individuals.

Noting that the Covid-19 vaccination should be treated as a "3-dose regime" for mRNA vaccines, Ong said: "On that basis, the full vaccination status that is accorded after 2 doses of mRNA vaccines and 3 doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines cannot last in perpetuity. The protection will wane after a few months, and it needs to be restored with a booster."

Singapore currently has three vaccines under its national vaccination programme: mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as China's Sinovac vaccine.

Meanwhile, the Health Sciences Authority is completing the process of evaluating the Novavax vaccine and is expected to release a statement soon, said Kenneth Mak, director of medical services at MOH.

"We are very optimistic that we will be able to get authorisation to use the Novavax vaccine as part of our national vaccination programme and the EC19V are working through what the recommendations will be," Assoc Prof Mak said.

It is expected to have an important role as a non-mRNA vaccine alternative for the purposes of boosting, he added. As the evidence shows that Novavax has better effectiveness against the Delta and Omicron variants compared to "some other non-mRNA vaccines", there is a "very high likelihood" that it will be recommended as a booster vaccine as part of the national vaccination programme.

Individuals who have taken their primary vaccination series will be invited to take their booster 5 months after their last dose; those who do not take their booster within 270 days will see their fully-vaccinated status lapse.

For vaccinated persons who have recovered from Covid-19, no additional booster dose is required at this point in time, said MOH.

However, recovered persons who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated before their infection should receive one dose of the mRNA vaccine at least 3 months after infection to be considered fully vaccinated, the ministry added. The 270-day vaccination validity period does not apply to recovered persons who complete this vaccination requirement.