Covid-19 vaccine bookings for children in S'pore aged 5 to 11 to start on Dec 22; jabs from Dec 27

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Amelia Teng, Education Correspondent

Dec 21, 2021 11:06 am

Covid-19 vaccination for children aged five to 11 will begin on Monday (Dec 27), with bookings opening from Dec 22 - first for Primary 4 to 6 pupils.

The vaccination exercise for more than 300,000 children will be done across 15 paediatric centres, which will be rolled out in batches.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) announced on Tuesday (Dec 21) details for the vaccination programme, which will be open to all children who are Singapore citizens, permanent residents and long-term pass holders.

Older children will go first, starting with Primary 4 to Primary 6 pupils attending MOE schools in 2022. Close to 120,000 SMS invitations will be sent on Dec 22 to their parents to book appointments. The text messages will include a unique link to book a vaccination appointment.

From Dec 27, parents of all other children born between 2009 and 2012, and who are not in MOE schools, can register their interest for the vaccination. They can do so at the MOH National Appointment System (NAS) at this website.

Primary 1 to Primary 3 pupils will be next, and their parents will receive booking invites from the week of Jan 3 next year.

Mask wearing is still “strongly encouraged” for medically vulnerable people such as seniors and those with acute respiratory infection.

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This will be followed by all children aged five and above (born between 2013 and 2017), from the week of Jan 10. Their parents can also register their interest on NAS.

The 15 paediatric vaccination centres will be spread across Singapore and are mainly located with existing vaccination centres for adults and older children.

The MOE and ECDA said that there will be separate queues and spaces at the centres for younger children to ensure safe distancing and correct administration of the vaccine.

These centres will be manned by medical personnel trained in paediatric care, as well as staff trained in administering vaccination for children.

Seven centres will start operations from Dec 27, followed by seven more centres from Jan 3, 2022. Each centre has a capacity of up to 1,000 appointments a day.

An additional paediatric vaccination centre within Yusof Ishak Secondary School will also be set up to cater to families in the Punggol and Sengkang area, starting on Jan 11, 2022.

Special arrangements will be made for children in special education (Sped) schools and ECDA-funded EIPIC centres. EIPIC stands for Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children.

The Ministry of Health will deploy mobile vaccination teams to schools for all eligible Sped and EIPIC students from Jan 12, 2022.

For other children with special needs who do not attend Sped schools and EIPIC centres, such as those from private early intervention centres or who are home-schooled, their parents may register their interest on the NAS when their children's age bands are eligible for registration.

Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine is the only vaccine approved for children aged 5 to 11 in Singapore.

The first batch is expected to arrive here on Wednesday (Dec 22).

Earlier this month, the Health Sciences Authority approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine for use in children in this age group, following Phase 3 clinical trial results showing its safety and efficacy for them.