COVID-19 and Healthcare Capacity

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1318
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Yip Hon Weng
MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC

Question No. 3299

To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether vaccinations for COVID-19 will be incorporated into the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule; and (b) if so, whether parents will have a choice between mRNA and non-mRNA vaccines.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1325
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Yip Hon Weng
MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC

Question No. 3319

To ask the Minister for Health with regard to the current COVID-19 Omicron wave (a) whether the hospitalisation rate of 1.9% is expected to rise as more restrictions are removed; (b) what is the highest hospitalisation rate that our public hospitals can currently accommodate; and (c) whether the Government will look into mandating targeted vaccines against the Omicron variant.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1336
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim
MP for Sengkang GRC

Question No. 2117

To ask the Minister for Health whether resource constraints at our medical facilities and hospitals remain a binding constraint on (i) the full removal of vaccine-differentiated measures (VDMs) and (ii) the consideration to make such VDMs illegal.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1325
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Yip Hon Weng
MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC

Question No. 2086

To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the total incidence of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children who have caught COVID-19 that are (i) vaccinated and (ii) non-vaccinated; and (b) whether the current review of mRNA vaccines by HSA will include the long-term effects of the vaccines on children, particularly with regard to risks of developmental defects in children aged below five years old.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1336
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Yip Hon Weng
MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC

Question No. 2118

To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether there is an update on Health Sciences Authority’s assessment of the use of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for persons aged 18 and below; and (b) whether there are plans to eventually approve the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine as a non-mRNA vaccine alternative for children aged six months old and above.

Oral Answer  

Mr Speaker Sir, with your permission, may I address the questions for oral answers 1 to 2, and questions for written answers 21 to 23 in the order paper please?

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked about COVID-19 hospitalisation rates that our public hospitals can accommodate. As our society becomes more resilient to COVID-19 due to vaccinations as well as safe recovery from infections, we have observed that the incidence of hospitalisation has fallen in the most recent Omicron infection wave compared to previous waves.

However, it is not possible to estimate a hospitalisation incidence rate which our healthcare capacity can accommodate or handle, because it is also a function of the transmissibility of the variant and the number of people who get infected on a daily basis during a big wave.

What we need to do is to continue to keep our vaccinations up to date, prevent ourselves from falling severely ill if we are infected. We must exercise social responsibility such as staying at home and self-testing when not feeling well, and do whatever we can to optimise our hospital capacity. We have been and will continue to reallocate our healthcare resources on a dynamic basis to where it is needed most.

Mr Yip also asked about vaccines. We are bringing in bivalent vaccines into Singapore. It is provided for in our agreements with the pharmaceutical companies. The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has in fact completed the evaluation of the Moderna bivalent vaccine and the decision will be announced soon. The bivalent vaccines will target both the ancestral strain of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. Our intention is to update our vaccines for the National Vaccination Programme as formulations improve. We will share more details when the arrangements are confirmed.

Nevertheless, existing vaccines remain highly protective against severe disease, including for the Omicron BA.5 variant. So if you are eligible to receive another vaccine dose, please receive your vaccination without delay, and not wait for variant-specific vaccines, because COVID-19 is still spreading in our community.

I will now turn to the Member’s question about COVID-19 in children. As of 29 August 2022, amongst young people under the age of 18 who are infected with COVID-19, the incidence of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) was 5.7 per 100,000 for those fully vaccinated, versus 38 per 100,000 amongst those not fully vaccinated.

The Member also asked about children’s vaccinations for COVID-19, such as whether Novavax will be made available for those aged 18 and below, and whether the vaccines have long-term effects on children. Currently, HSA as well as our Expert Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination (EC19V) are independently evaluating the Novavax vaccine for young persons aged 12 to 17. Novavax has not submitted the application for its vaccine to be administered to children under 12 years of age.

There is so far no evidence suggesting COVID-19 vaccines result in potential risk of toxicity to humans or developmental defects in children. There are no plans to include COVID-19 vaccinations into the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule at this point as the pandemic situation is dynamic and the recommendations continue to evolve with new data. MOH will review this when appropriate.

Associate Professor Jamus Lim asked about vaccination-differentiated measures (VDS). At the height of an infection wave, measures are taken to prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed. However, when cases are low and steady, many of these measures including mask-wearing, for example, have been removed. However, others, such as vaccinations and VDS, are kept in some form, in anticipation of another infection wave. This is the nature of crisis management. We stand down many measures when it is not needed, but we need to keep some in anticipation of something worse happening later.

While VDS are mandated for specific settings such as events with more than 500 participants at any one time, business owners and employers also have the flexibility to implement conditions of service that are relevant to their settings, such as requiring the donning of masks, as well as adopting vaccination-related instructions for customers or for workers.

Nevertheless, as the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) has explained in our last press conference, we are reviewing vaccination requirements, from one of counting number of doses and boosters we are taking, to ensuring that our vaccination is ‘up to date’. This will be a more enduring posture as we live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease. We expect to complete this review in the next couple of months, and will review VDS at the same time.