Some health experts in Singapore are calling for mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 with a growing toll of severe cases among unvaccinated people as infections surge and with the vaccination rate plateauing at 82 percent.
The government has linked reopening to vaccination targets, but it paused the easing of restrictions this month to watch for signs that severe infections could overwhelm the healthcare system.
“I would love to see vaccine mandates for the over-60s — they are the group most likely to die,” said Dale Fisher, an infectious disease expert at National University Hospital in Singapore.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s the same reason that the age group was selected early for vaccines — the same reason that the age group has been selected for booster jabs,” Fisher said.
Singapore has been a model for virus mitigation since the COVID-19 pandemic began with mandatory masks, effective contact tracing and a closed border.
In all, 62 people out of its population of 5.7 million people have died and new daily infections were for months no more than a handful.
However, as in other nations throughout Southeast Asia, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has in the past few months been spreading and new daily cases have risen to about 1,000.
Of vaccinated people in Singapore who caught the virus from May 1 to Thursday last week, only 0.09 percent of them had to go into intensive care units (ICU) or died. The rate for the unvaccinated was 1.7 percent.
Data for elderly people is particularly striking. Of infected unvaccinated people aged 80 or older, 15 percent of them had to be treated in ICUs or died. Only 1.79 percent of the vaccinated in that age group needed intensive care or died.
Singapore has not made vaccination compulsory because the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines only have emergency approval in the country.
The city-state has restricted activities, such as eating out for the unvaccinated.
Neither BioNTech or Moderna responded to a query on whether it had applied for full approval in Singapore.
With about 87,000 older people still unvaccinated, some experts say that full approval could pave the way for a mandate.
“Vaccination is much more protective than the other measures we have in place, and less economically and socially damaging,” said Alex Cook, an infectious disease modeling expert at the National University of Singapore.
“If we are not to enforce vaccination, it seems odd to enforce weaker and more costly measures,” Cook said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS