Offering Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccines to the public in Singapore for the first time since Friday, several private clinics reported overwhelming demand for the Chinese-made shot, despite already available rival vaccines having far higher efficacy.
Singapore has vaccinated almost half its 5.7 million population with at least one dose of the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Both have shown efficacy rates of well over 90 percent against symptomatic disease in clinical trials, compared with Sinovac’s 51 percent.
Earlier this week, officials in Indonesia said that more than 350 medical workers have caught COVID-19, despite being vaccinated with Sinovac and dozens have been hospitalized, raising concerns about its efficacy against more infectious variants.
Photo: AFP
Evidence from other countries showed that people who had taken the Sinovac vaccine were still getting infected, Kenneth Mak (麥錫威), Singapore’s director of medical services, said on Friday.
“There is a significant risk of vaccine breakthrough,” he said, referring to the report on Indonesian healthcare workers.
A number of the people rushing for the Sinovac shot on the first day of its availability in Singapore were Chinese nationals, who felt it would make it easier to travel home without going through quarantine.
Singapore allowed the usage of the Sinovac vaccine by private healthcare institutions under a special access route, following an emergency use approval by the WHO earlier this month.
Singapore said it is awaiting critical data from Sinovac before including it in the national vaccination program.
In the meantime, authorities have selected 24 private clinics to administer its current stock of 200,000 doses. The clinics are charging S$10 to S$25 (US$7.50 to US$18.60) per dose.
“We have about 2,400 bookings, so that stretches from right now until end of July,” Louis Tan, chief executive officer at StarMed Specialist Centre, said yesterday.
He said many of those who made the Sinovac bookings tend to be in their 40s or above.
Wee Healthfirst, another approved clinic, put a notice at its entrance on Friday, saying that it had stopped reservations for the vaccine until Thursday next week, citing “overwhelming demand.”
A receptionist said about 1,000 people had registered there.
Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases doctor at Rophi Clinic, also said he had been “overwhelmed” by people wanting the Sinovac shot.
Tang Guangyu, a 49-year-old engineer, was among the Chinese nationals resident in Singapore who waited for the Sinovac shot rather than take a foreign-made vaccine that he thought might not be recognized by authorities back home.
“No one wants to be quarantined for a month, I don’t have so many days of leave,” Tang told reporters as he lined up outside a clinic.
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