SINGAPORE, Dec 13 — Even though Covid-19 infections are low, and increasing numbers have received the bivalent vaccination in recent weeks, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung is urging more people, especially seniors, to get the shot. He flagged the risk of possible mutations as China opened up the country after a long period of restrictions.

Visiting one of the newly deployed mobile vaccination teams yesterday at Hong Kah North Community Centre, Ong said that “everything in general is calm, but at the same time, we also wanted to be prepared”.

On December 6, the Ministry of Health announced that eight mobile vaccination teams would be deployed progressively, starting from Monday to heartland locations to encourage seniors to get vaccinated.

Ong said that even though things were calmer coming out of the XBB infection wave, Singapore needed to be prepared for potential challenges.

He said that as the northern hemisphere winter approached, there would be increased hospital loads due to the spreading of diseases, and the reopening of China could lead to mutations of the coronavirus.

“They’re taking very decisive steps to open up their economy and society. This (is) bound to drive up infections, which we are not so worried (about), because our resilience is high and we’ve gone through three waves this year.”

“But the question is, with 1.3 billion people mostly uninfected, (when) the disease starts to spread, we are bound to get mutations,” Ong said.

“What we worry more... is what kind of mutations may come out of China. So that’s what we’re watching,” he added.

Dr Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert, told TODAY that a mutation was likely but it would not be a serious concern.

“(The virus has) gone through nearly five billion people (the whole world’s population minus China) and we had the Omicron mutation that (was) milder. I would not be overly worried.

“Further mutations will always occur... (but) unless the mutation is very drastic, the existing immunity — trained by vaccinations and infections — should be able to negate it (or lessen the severity of infections).”

He added that China has had low infections and low vaccination rates so far, which meant the country’s people have lower immunity and would face a tougher time.

“We are to expect a large number of cases from China, even a large number of deaths... we should, in the spirit of one world, support them.”

386,000 bivalent vaccines administered

MOH said on Monday that as at December 11, 386,000 doses of bivalent vaccines have been administered.

This is an increase over the last update of the uptake of the Moderna-Spikevax vaccine from mid-November, when MOH reported that more than 186,000 people had received the bivalent vaccine or booked an appointment for it as of Nov 16.

In addition, another bivalent vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) vaccine is also being offered to people aged 12 and above from yesterday.

Ong spoke on the importance of vaccination for seniors, stating that “among older people 70 and above, who are not up-to-date or do not have minimum protection of the vaccination... we get about 70 (deaths for every 10,000 infections)”.

This is compared to the general population, where one in 10,000 people who get infected die, MOH’s website states.

“Minimum protection” is defined as someone, aged 12 and over, who has received at least three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty), Moderna-Spikevax or Novavax-Nuvaxovid vaccines, or four doses of the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine.

An up-to-date vaccination is a person who has minimum protection and has taken an extra bivalent dose, or if their last dose was below five months ago, MOH said.

Additionally, nine in 10 seniors aged 60 and above have achieved minimum protection against Covid-19, with six in 10 were up to date with their vaccination, it said on December 6.

For comparison, 82 per cent of the eligible population (including seniors) has minimum protection against Covid-19, with 65 per cent of those eligible having up-to-date vaccinations.

Ong said that he hopes to see more sign-ups from seniors with the rollout of the mobile vaccination teams in public housing estates, adding that it will be more convenient for them.

“In the end, this is still about protecting the seniors (and) making sure they get up-to-date vaccinations.” — TODAY