Details of COVID-19 Vaccination Roll-out Plan and Concerns on Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines

Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Health (a) what are the measures taken by the Ministry to ensure that any vaccines for COVID-19 are appropriate and safe for Singaporeans; and (b) whether the Ministry has assessed all potential side effects of the vaccine.

Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Health (a) what are the details of the rollout plans for COVID-19 vaccination in Singapore; (b) how does the Ministry determine the safety and effectiveness of the various vaccines coming into the market; and (c) whether individuals who have been vaccinated will be given a "vaccination card" to facilitate identification that may be required from time to time.

Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Health (a) what criteria are used by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to assess COVID-19 vaccinations before approval for public use; and (b) what benchmarks for efficacy are used.

Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Health regarding the COVID-19 vaccines (a) what are the potential side effects associated with the vaccines; (b) whether the extent and probability of side effects occurring are significantly different from existing flu vaccines; (c) what are the plans to deal with the severe side effects that can arise due to the administration of the vaccines; and (d) what recourse do Singaporeans have should they experience severe side effects.

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the number of COVID-19 vaccine submissions that are in each phase of evaluation by HSA; (b) what is the number of doses of each type of COVID-19 vaccine that has been secured for Singapore; (c) what is the delivery timeline for these vaccines; and (d) whether individuals will be given autonomy to decide on the type of vaccine they will receive when more than one vaccine has been approved.

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Health what are the measures to assuage ground concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health in view of certain COVID-19 infections having "high genetic similarity" of virus despite dissimilar countries of origin among persons who served Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at Mandarin Orchard Singapore, whether the Ministry will consider establishing capability for scaled-up rapid whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of virus from clinical samples including nose swabs, so as to complement existing WGS from cultured COVID-19 virus.

Mr Alex Yam asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) whether any research is being done on public attitudes towards vaccination against COVID-19; and (b) how will the public communications strategy be formulated to engage residents across all demographics.

Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for Health considering that there is little change between Phase Two and Phase Three of the re-opening, what is the current strategy to progressively reopen Singapore until our borders are opened to foreign visitors.

Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Health what measures will be put in place in Singapore to deal with the new variant of the COVID-19 virus that is reported to be spreading rapidly in the UK and parts of Europe.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Prime Minister (a) what is the reason for the delay in supplying the TraceTogether tokens to all residents by 14 December 2020; and (b) what is the new timeline for all residents to collect the TraceTogether tokens.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Health (a) whether there will be a need to separate blood collected from donors who have and have not received COVID-19 vaccinations; and (b) if so, whether all necessary measures will be put in place ahead of the vaccine being introduced for use in Singapore.