Vaccination centre busy on first day of bivalent vaccine roll-out
Vaccination centres here were once again a hive of activity on Friday, the first day that Moderna's updated Spikevax vaccine is being offered here.
More than 50 people, mostly seniors, were waiting to get the bivalent vaccine jab when The Straits Times went to the Kaki Bukit joint testing and vaccination centre (JTVC) at 10.15am.
The centre began filling with more people at about 11am, but the queue moved briskly, as they did in earlier Covid-19 vaccination exercises.
Some people in the queue said they wanted to get the bivalent vaccine as it targets two variants - the original strain and the Omicron variant - thereby conferring better protection. For others, it was for greater peace of mind, given the rising infection numbers due to the XBB Omicron subvariant.
Ms Sally Tan, 58, a director in the education sector, brought her 87-year-old mother along to get vaccinated together.
Ms Tan is travelling to Europe for work in two weeks' time, and is getting her fourth jab for reassurance.
Mr Nikhil Singh, 46, who works in a bank, took leave to get vaccinated as he is overdue for his booster shot.
He had to postpone a trip as his Singpass app reflected that he was unvaccinated.
Mr Samuel Tay, 50, a client success manager, was getting vaccinated as he did not want Covid-19 to disrupt his work and life.
"I've seen colleagues travelling, getting infected and re-infected. I want to keep the disruption to a minimum."
The Moderna bivalent vaccine, which was approved by the Health Sciences Authority in September, has been updated so that it targets the original Sars-CoV-2 strain of the virus as well as the Omicron BA.1 variant.
The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that clinical trials have showed that it generates greater antibody response and provides better protection against newer Covid-19 variants, while side effects after vaccination were similar for both the bivalent vaccine and the original vaccine, and there were no safety issues observed.
Those aged 50 and above and whose last Covid-19 vaccine jab was at least five months ago can walk into any of the nine JTVCs offering the new vaccine islandwide to get the bivalent shot.
They will not have to make an appointment beforehand.
Individuals can refer to this website to locate the nearest JTVC and their operating hours.
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