COVID-19 Vaccination Roll-out for Migrant Workers

Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out for migrant workers; and (b) what measures will be taken to educate migrant workers so as to encourage the uptake of vaccines.

Mr Speaker, Sir, as part of the national COVID-19 vaccination strategy to protect all Singaporean citizens and long-term pass holders living in Singapore, vaccinations will be made available to migrant workers. The communal living and working conditions of migrant workers in dormitories put them at higher risk of infection and the formation of large clusters.

MOM is working out the schedule and details with MOH, depending on the delivery schedule for the vaccines. And as what Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary has alluded to earlier, this will be in tandem with the delivery schedules. We will make an announcement when it is ready. I can share that the vaccination efforts will be accompanied by a very comprehensive communication campaign to inform migrant workers of the safety and benefits of the vaccine. The common side effects as well as the risks of allergic reactions will also be explained and communication with the migrant workers will be done through videos, pamphlets as well as booklets in their native languages.

Vaccination of the migrant workers helps to reduce the viral load which, in turn, lowers the overall risk and helps protect our wider community from an outbreak. This will also reduce the potential load on our healthcare workers and facilities.

I thank the Minister for his answer and assurances. Just two supplementary questions. Firstly, just to clarify that the timeline for rolling out the vaccine to migrant workers will still be within the same timeline as mentioned by Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary earlier, for the country as a whole. Will the migrant workers be vaccinated within that overall timeline band? And that is important given the particular risks that they face, as the Minister pointed out.

Secondly, will the Government be working with NGOs who work with migrant workers to help to reinforce these messages and help to provide assurances and education to facilitate the take-up of the vaccine?

Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Leon Perera for his supplementary questions. Yes, the answer to his first question is yes. We will prioritise the migrant workers and it would be within the timeline as communicated by the Senior Minister of State. However, the prioritisation will also depend on the risk stratification of the dorms and obviously those at higher risk, we will vaccinate them first.

With regard to the NGOs, we will be working with some of the larger NGOs which have greater outreach in terms of reaching out to the migrant workers. But as far as possible, in our communications, in our educational strategy, we will try our best to involve all the NGOs.