Yahoo Finance COVID-19: Singapore begins vaccination drive for 50,000 taxi, private hire car drivers
SINGAPORE — Singapore began its COVID-19 vaccination exercise for taxi drivers and private hire car (PHC) drivers on Tuesday (23 February).
By the end of this week, over 50,000 taxi and PHC drivers will receive SMSes with a unique link to book their vaccination appointments at any vaccination centre, 20 polyclinics or Public Health Preparedness Centres that are operating as vaccination sites, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a news release.
The scheme is a joint effort by the LTA and Ministry of Health, and is supported by the National Taxi Association and National Private Hire Vehicles Association, as well as taxi and PHC operators.
“I want to strongly encourage our taxi and PHC drivers to take up the vaccination offer. Vaccination is another means to protect themselves, their families and their community," said Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor while visiting a vaccination centre in Jurong West.
"It will give them greater peace of mind as well as give greater assurance to their (passengers).”
She added that some 300 taxi and PHC drivers were set to receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the centre on Tuesday.
One of the recipients was PHC driver Joseph Goh, who told Yahoo News Singapore that his injection was “nothing special”.
“It’s just like a flu jab or whatever jab you had before,” said the 55-year-old, adding that he felt fine after receiving the vaccine.
“(Taking the vaccine) is a bit of social responsibility. It actually helps our passengers to have confidence in taking private hire (rides),” said Goh.
Dr Khor told reporters that the vaccination programme for workers in train and bus industries has been “progressing well” since it kicked off in January.
“As of 14 February, more than 14,000 public transport workers have received the first dose of their vaccination and, among them, more than 10,000 have received their second dose of the vaccination,” she added.
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