Subsidising seniors for WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Joan Pereira
MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC

Question No. 1237

To ask the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider allowing senior citizens aged 60 years and above to claim reimbursement for taking COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

Written Answer

Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has approved two vaccines, namely Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty and Moderna, to be used in the national vaccination programme.  They are safe, effective and are fully subsidised by the Government.

However, as we are mindful that some Singaporeans prefer other vaccines, MOH has allows vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation to be on its Emergency Use Listing to be brought into Singapore under HSA’s Special Access Route. These vaccines have not been authorised for use by HSA based on their safety and efficacy profiles. Subsidising these vaccines will therefore be inconsistent with their approval status.  Nevertheless, Government has a stock of vaccines from Sinovac, and has released them free of charge to private clinics to administer them under the SAR.

We continue to urge all who are medically eligible to receive HSA-authorised PSAR vaccines under the national vaccination programme.