Singapore:
Singapore received Asia’s initial delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, capping what the city-state’s premier stated had been a “long and arduous” year spent fighting the pandemic.
The trade and finance hub final week joined a handful of other nations about the globe, which includes Britain and the United States, which have authorized the jab.
It plans to innoculate its 5.7 million persons by the third quarter of 2021, with priority provided to well being workers, the elderly and the medically vulnerable.
“Delighted to see the first shipment of vaccines arrive in Singapore,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote on Facebook, soon after a Singapore Airlines flight carrying the vaccines landed from Belgium.
“It’s been a long and arduous year, I hope that this news will give Singaporeans cheer this festive season, and reason to be optimistic for 2021.”
Vaccination in Singapore will be voluntary, but Lee has strongly encouraged persons to get take element in the campaign.
The Pfizer vaccine demands a two-shot remedy and will have to be kept at temperatures beneath -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit) to work correctly.
Transportation Minister Ong Ye Kung stated a regional facility was generating 4 tonnes of dry ice every day to effectively refrigerate the goods.
Singapore will additional ease social distancing restrictions from December 28 soon after weeks of barely any regional coronavirus infections.
Authorities initially kept Covid-19 in verify via rigorous make contact with tracing but the virus later swept via dormitories housing low-paid migrant workers.
The city has reported more than 58,000 virus infections but a somewhat low 29 deaths. Its borders stay closed to most international guests.
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