SINGAPORE – The nation’s Covid-19 vaccination rate has been going up by about one percentage point a day, with 54 per cent of the population having received two doses of the vaccine as at Sunday (July 25).
Revealing this in a ministerial statement on Monday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that the national vaccination programme is “progressing well”.
The statistics he cited was specifically for those who have taken messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines.
Mr Ong told Parliament that by National Day, almost 70 per cent of the population will have received two doses of these vaccines. This should rise to about 80 per cent by early September.
“This means Singapore will have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. It puts us in a strong position to transit to a Covid-19-resilient society,” he said.
However, Mr Ong added that unvaccinated seniors, especially those aged 70 and above, are a source of worry. Currently, just more than 70 per cent of them have received two doses of the vaccine.
But he noted that more seniors are turning up at vaccination centres to get their jabs or getting them from mobile vaccination teams.
The rate of seniors receiving their shots in this manner has doubled over the past few days, from about 500 to more than 1,000 a day.
“This may be due to heightened awareness as a result of more community transmissions, the lifting of rules that had previously deferred vaccinations for those with medical conditions, and also our very intense outreach efforts,” said Mr Ong.
