[ad_1]
SINGAPORE, Nov. 28 (The Straits Times / ANN): With not one, not two, but three Covid-19 vaccines requesting worldwide emergency use authorization, and several others in clinical trials, including a homegrown candidate , Singapore can make sure it won’t have to put all its eggs in one basket to keep its people safe from coronavirus. And you also may not have to wait too long.
Professor Ooi Eng Eong, Deputy Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS School of Medicine, said: “We must use any vaccine with proven safety and efficacy as soon as possible to protect our population and return to our normal lives both as possible., and as soon as possible. “
In recent weeks, news of the promising interim results of the latest trials for three candidate vaccines has come quickly, helping to inject some joy into a world burdened by a pandemic that has infected more than 61 million people. and has collected more than 1.4 million. lives.
The Covid-19 situation in the country is also well controlled. There were only six new cases of coronavirus on Saturday (Nov 28), including one locally transmitted community case.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said the local case was detected from its surveillance tests of merchants in and near the Tekka Center on Thursday.
There were five imported cases, which were placed on a stay-at-home notice upon arrival in Singapore. More details of the cases will be announced in the evening.
Saturday’s new cases bring Singapore’s total to 58,205.
Singapore’s Health Ministry said the local case was detected from its surveillance tests of traders in and near the Tekka Center. – The Straits Times / Asian News Network
This is the second local case in 19 days. Singapore had gone 16 days without a case of local transmission until Thursday, when it was announced that a 32-year-old Singaporean marine services engineer, who dined with 12 family members at the Seoul Garden in Tampines Mall, tested positive for the coronavirus.
Experts have told The Straits Times that a case is unlikely to lead to a major increase in cases here, as their close contacts have been quarantined, although there could be a small pool of second-generation cases.
It is believed that their rapid detection and subsequent contact tracing would stop the chain of transmission.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, were the first to announce on November 9 that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective in preventing people from contracting the disease. This rose to 95 percent when it published the first complete set of results on November 18.
On his heels was the American pharmaceutical company Moderna, which said on Nov. 16 that its vaccine candidate had shown an efficacy rate of 94.5 percent.
AstraZeneca was third in the vaccine race to announce that it had a potential winner on its hands.
Last Monday, he said the vaccine candidate he is developing with the University of Oxford had an efficacy rate of up to 90 percent if a lower first dose was used with a regular second dose. Otherwise, with two standard doses, the efficacy rate was 62 percent.
A general view shows Singapore’s financial district at night. – AFP
“Achieving between 90% and 95% efficacy of the vaccine in outbreak conditions with a new pathogen within a year of discovery is as extraordinary as two golfers playing on a completely unknown green, who have just made holes in one” Associate said. Professor Lim Poh Lian, Director of the Travel Health and Vaccination Clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong has said that Singapore will work to “secure a portfolio” of Covid-19 vaccines to serve different segments of the population.
When asked which vaccine he was most excited about, Professor Ooi, principal investigator for Lunar-CoV19, the candidate vaccine being developed by Arcturus Therapeutics in the United States and Duke-NUS School of Medicine here, replied: “I will take the first licensed vaccine available. vaccine. “
News that all three candidate vaccines may be 90-95% effective gave cause for optimism that the world could turn the corner in the battle against the virus. However, while vaccines prevent most people from getting sick with Covid-19, there is no data to show that they prevent a person from getting infected and then transmit the infection even without getting sick; or how long they last.
“Asymptomatic Sars-CoV-2 infection in vaccinated people could still allow the virus to spread in our community and cause Covid-19 in unvaccinated people,” said Professor Ooi.
Experts have stressed that no vaccine is perfect. So while a good vaccine boosts a person’s immune system to give them an advantage in fighting disease, it may not confer 100 percent protection or work for everyone. It can also go away over time. People who received a vaccine against mumps or whooping cough, for example, can still pass it on.
Still, when enough people are vaccinated and the virus cannot travel as easily from person to person, the entire community is less likely to contract the disease. Professor Ooi said it would take time to determine if any vaccines can prevent Sars-CoV-2 infection.
“Therefore, we should maintain a line of new vaccines so that we can find the ones that are most effective in maintaining protection against Covid-19 and possibly even eliminating Sars-CoV-2 from the human population,” he said.
In a webinar hosted by The Straits Times on Wednesday, Singapore’s chief health scientist Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said that the Covid-19 vaccines on the cusp of their approval would completely change the battle against the pandemic, but not they can eliminate all other measures. – The Straits Times / Asian News Network
[ad_2]
