Singapore is considering regular vaccination of COVID-19 vaccine boosters

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore has now exceeded 1.7 million, accounting for about 30% of the country’s population. 

However, Singapore’s Ministry of Health found through blood sample research that about 60% of local residents had been infected with the COVID-19 virus.

 At the same time, according to the latest data, more than 90% of Singapore’s population has completed the vaccination of the COVID-19.

But against the backdrop of high infection rates and high vaccination rates, Singapore is still far from herd immunity. 

Ong Ye Kung revealed that in the next few months, the Singapore Ministry of Health will explore whether to let the public receive a booster dose every nine months to a year, like the flu shot.

 Singapore has a small population base and excellent medical conditions. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the epidemic prevention policy has shown greater flexibility, and new adjustments have been made according to the situation.

Overall, Singapore will continue to follow the established epidemic prevention policy.

Epidemic repeated

Driven by the Omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5, the daily number of confirmed cases in Singapore has increased rapidly since June.

Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Huang Xuncai said at the time that the possibility of the government tightening the COVID-19 restrictions policy again cannot be ruled out. 

The government hopes is to stand this wave of the epidemic without having to go back.

Fortunately, in mid-July, the epidemic began to improve, but according to the latest data on August 2, the daily number of confirmed cases still exceeded 10,000.

On August 1, Ong Ye Kung said that 93% of Singapore’s population has completed two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 79% of the population has received a booster dose. As a result, Singapore’s Covid-19 mortality rate is relatively lower than the global level. Due to the high vaccine coverage rate, Singapore has also adopted a new epidemic prevention policy, striving to strike a balance between life-saving and economic protection.

Huang Xuncai, then the Minister of Finance of Singapore, told the first financial reporter in December last year that Singapore is an export-oriented economy and needs to be connected with other countries to retain existing talents and attract new talents.

Singapore is implementing the existing epidemic prevention policy. important consideration.

Ong Ye Kung analyzed that because the virus will continue to mutate and the immune escape ability will increase, herd immunity is impossible to achieve. 

At the same time, with the weakening of the antibodies of those infected in the early stage, the second infection of the COVID-19 is expected to increase. He emphasized that instead of pursuing impossible herd immunity, it is better to protect yourself from severe disease through continuous vaccination.

Meanwhile, Singapore is the first Southeast Asian country to report monkeypox cases this year. The Ministry of Health stipulates that close contacts should be quarantined for 21 days, and low-risk contacts will be traced by phone.

In the future, the situation of monkeypox virus transmission will be closely monitored.

Singapore’s Ministry of Health said on August 1 that it had contacted 45 close contacts of the monkeypox virus and provided the smallpox vaccine as a preventive shot after exposure to the monkeypox virus, and 11 people have been vaccinated so far.

 Both monkeypox virus and smallpox virus are orthopoxviruses, and historical data show that smallpox vaccine also has about 85% protection against monkeypox.

Economic impacts

Although Singapore’s economy has already entered the post-epidemic recovery stage, the haze of the epidemic is still difficult to shake off.

Data released by Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry on July 14 showed that Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.8% year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 4% in the previous quarter.

However, according to a survey report released by the Economic Development Board of Singapore at the end of July, business sentiment in Singapore’s manufacturing industry has turned negative, with more manufacturing companies pessimistic about the business situation in the second half of the year than optimistic.

The Singapore Economic Development Board said that the epidemic and prevention and control are important factors, in addition to supply chain challenges, operating cost pressures, geopolitical conflicts and other factors.

Alvin Liew, senior economist at UOB, said a resurgence of the epidemic or the government’s imposition of anti-epidemic restrictions and temporary interruption of the supply of foreign labor are potential external risks affecting the outlook for Singapore’s manufacturing industry.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore released its quarterly survey in June based on data from economists and analysts’ forecasts.

 Economists and analysts surveyed cut their forecast for Singapore’s economic growth in 2022 to 3.8% from 4% three months ago, the report showed.