Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to be given at four new vaccination centres

[SINGAPORE] The Moderna Covid-19 vaccine will be administered at four new vaccination centres here starting on Wednesday (March 17), the Ministry of Health has announced.

These are: Hong Kah North Community Club, Marsiling Community Club, Punggol 21 Community Club and Radin Mas Community Club.

All other vaccination centres here, as well as polyclinics and selected Public Health Preparedness Clinics, will continue to offer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

MOH said that the Moderna vaccine will be available at more vaccination centres as more supplies of it arrive. "Each vaccination centre will only stock and administer one type of vaccine. Individuals must select the same vaccination centre for both their first and second appointments, when booking via the national appointment system," said the Ministry on Tuesday (March 16).

It also added that as the vaccination capacity of each vaccination centre is not the same, the waiting times for first dose will differ between the vaccination centres.

In addition to the four new centres mentioned earlier, three other vaccination centres will also progressively commence operations from March 17.

They are Nanyang Community Club, Sengkang Community Club and Arena@ Our Tampines Hub .

By mid-April, there will be a total of 40 vaccination centres island-wide.

With the latest centres, those eligible can get their jabs at 31 vaccination centres, on top of the 20 polyclinics and 22 PHPCs across the island.

People are encouraged to book their vaccination appointments at the vaccination centres, which have a higher capacity than the polyclinics.

As of March 15, more than 792,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered.

Over 549,000 people have received at least the first dose, of whom about 243,000 have also received their second dose, and hence completed the full vaccination regimen.

Since vaccination for seniors commenced island-wide on Feb 22, more than 175,000 seniors have received their first dose, and about 230,000 seniors have made appointments to receive their first dose in the next few weeks.

MOH said that it is ramping up the setting up of more vaccination centres islandwide to accelerate the pace of vaccination and provide greater convenience for Singaporeans and long-term residents to receive their jabs.

"All vaccination centres are well-equipped to handle medical exigencies, with trained doctors and nurses on-site to provide medical advice and treatment," it added.

THE STRAITS TIMES