Yahoo Finance Seniors 70 and above to get COVID vaccination letters by early March
SINGAPORE — All seniors aged 70 years and above can expect to receive personalised letters inviting them to sign up for COVID-19 vaccination over the next three weeks, by the first week of March, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (19 February).
The vaccination for seniors will begin islandwide in Singapore from next Monday. The ministry said it will start by inviting seniors living near polyclinics or vaccination centres, so that they can be conveniently vaccinated at a vaccination site near their home.
By mid-March when a vaccination centre is opened in each town, all seniors will be able to receive their vaccination, the MOH added.
"Thereafter we will move to vaccinate the seniors aged 60 to 69 years. They will receive their invitation letters around the middle of March, and the vaccination will commence from around end-March onwards," the ministry said.
As the letters will be mailed based on official residential addresses, seniors are encouraged to update their residential address using the change of address e-service via the relevant government websites, so that letters will be delivered to their place of residence.
The MOH also said that since the pilot for vaccinations for seniors aged 70 years and above commenced on 27 January for seniors residing in Ang Mo Kio and Tanjong Pagar, over 5,000 seniors from both towns have received their vaccinations as of Thursday.
"These seniors are scheduled to receive their second dose from 17 February onwards, and in two weeks, they will be adequately protected against COVID-19," it added.
As of Thursday, about 250,000 individuals have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Amongst them, more than 110,000 have also received their second dose of the vaccine, and completed the full vaccination regimen.
"(If) all goes well in March, then we should be able to get the first dose of vaccines out to another 1 million people on top of the 250,000, who have already received their vaccinations, which I think is good progress," said Education Minister Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the COVID-19 taskforce, during his visit to the vaccination centre at Jalan Besar Community Club on Friday.
What to do when you receive your invitation letter?
Seniors can register online for their vaccination at vaccine.gov.sg upon receiving their letters.
Once registered, they will receive an SMS with a unique link for them to book their vaccination appointments. Seniors will be able to schedule their vaccinations at any of the vaccination centres, 20 polyclinics, or 22 public health preparedness clinics (PHPCs) operating as vaccination sites.
Those who require assistance booking their vaccination appointments can bring their invitation letter to any community centre or club from Friday, where staff members will be available to assist them.
Community volunteers from People’s Association and Silver Generation Ambassadors will be conducting house visits and tapping on grassroots events to help seniors with their appointment booking and answer their queries.
To reach out to seniors who may find it challenging to visit a vaccination site in person due to mobility issues, authorities will work with the relevant agencies to deploy mobile vaccination teams to carry out vaccinations for these individuals.
More vaccination centres to open
There are 11 vaccination centres currently in operation:
Fullerton Health Vaccination Centre @ Raffles City Convention
Tanjong Pagar Community Club
Jalan Besar Community Centre
Bishan Community Centre
Raffles Medical Vaccination Centre – Airport
Woodlands Galaxy Community Club
Teck Ghee Community Centre
Senja-Cashew Community Centre
Canberra Community Centre
Serangoon Community Centre
Former Hong Kah Secondary School
Three more vaccination centres located at community centres or clubs will commence operations by next Monday, at Bukit Timah, Marine Parade and Taman Jurong, bringing the total to 14.
Thirty-one vaccination centres will be in operation by the middle of March, with at least one vaccination centre in each town.
Authorities expect to eventually set up around 40 vaccination centres, with each vaccination centre planned for an estimated capacity of 2,000 vaccinations per day.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
More Singapore stories:
COVID-19: Singapore confirms 11 new cases, all imported
Woman who died after tree fell on her at Marsiling Park identified as Mediacorp staff
Former model who ran "intimacy" services agency jailed, fined
