KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Selected Malaysian cargo drivers and accompanying personnel who enter Singapore will be given Covid-19 vaccination, the Singaporean government announced today.
Singapore’s Health Ministry stated through a press release that these drivers who are involved in the delivery of essential goods will be included in their Covid-19 vaccination exercise to reduce the risk of virus transmission.
However, individuals who are not vaccinated will still be permitted to enter the island, but are subjected to other preventive measures like testing upon arrival and other safety measures.
The republic has also included people aged 60 years old and above in their senior members group to receive Covid-19 vaccination, whereby earlier this year only people aged 70 years and above were in the list of seniors.
The arrival of new vaccines have helped Singapore bring forward vaccination for seniors from the end pf March. They will start to receive vaccine invitation letters in the next few days.
While focusing on their health care workers, Singapore has also decided to administer Covid-19 vaccines to other frontliners, including workers from the aviation and maritime sectors, as well as those who are involved in the critical sectors which drive the country.
The increase in the country’s Covid-19 vaccine stock has also paved the way for reporters, postmen, delivery staff, and bank operations staff who are involved in the banking and financial systems operations to receive vaccines in the near future.
Singapore, which earlier offered Covid-19 vaccination to active taxi and private hire car drivers, has extended the offer to staff in hawker centres and markets, including those who are involved in the food delivery industry.
Then, teachers, lecturers and other staff in the academic industry of the country, starting from pre-school to higher learning institutions, will begin to receive Covid-19 vaccines soon.
As children below 16 years old in the country are not vaccinated, Covid-19 vaccination exercises for educators will be able to reduce the virus transmission, according to Singapore’s Health Ministry.
Migrant workers and permanent residents will also receive Covid-19 vaccination in the country as most of the Covid-19 cases in Singapore sparked from the dormitories of foreign workers.
As a start, a total of 10,000 migrant workers who have never been infected by Covid-19 and who live in one of the five biggest dormitories will be included in the Covid-19 vaccination measures.
The vaccination process for all of these groups will begin soon as the country is aiming to extend the Covid-19 vaccination measures to the other parts of the community from April onwards.
As of yesterday, the country has completed a full cycle of Covid-19 vaccination (two doses) to a total of 217,000 people in their country from the 379,000 people who have received at least the first dose of vaccine.
Besides the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, the country is also using the Moderna vaccine.
