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Senior Nurse Sarah Lim of Singapore’s National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) receives a Covid-19 vaccine, administered by Senior Nurse Kho Wei Lian (left), at the NCID Day Treatment Center in Singapore, when the city state He began his exercise vaccination with the first group of health workers on Wednesday. (Photo by Kevin LIM / The Straits Times / AFP)
SINGAPORE: Singapore began vaccinating healthcare workers with Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, kicking off one of Asia’s first vaccination programs against a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people all over the world.
Sarah Lim, a 46-year-old nurse, and 43-year-old infectious disease physician Kalisvar Marimuthu were among more than 30 staff at the National Center for Infectious Diseases who were vaccinated on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.
They will return for the second dose of the vaccine on January 20.
“Vaccines have managed to bring down pandemics before. So I am hopeful that this vaccine will do the same,” Marimuthu said in recorded statements provided by the Health Ministry.
Singapore is the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. It has also signed advance purchase agreements and made upfront payments for several other candidate vaccines, including those being developed by Moderna and Sinovac.
It hopes to have enough vaccine doses for its 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021.
