Take-up Rate of COVID-19 Vaccination for Children Below Age Five and Number of Reported Adverse Reactions

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the take-up rate of COVID-19 vaccination for Singaporean children below the age of five; (b) what is the number of reported adverse reactions amongst this group of children who have undergone vaccination; and (c) whether the Ministry will include the vaccination status of children under five in the vaccination statistics published on its website.

As of 31 January 2023, about 11% of Singapore Residents aged six months to four years have taken at least one dose of the Moderna/Spikevax or Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine.

Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has reported that as of 31 December 2022, out of a total of about 16,448 vaccine doses administered, there were a total of five suspected serious adverse events, which is what we need to focus more on. This translates to a 0.03% incident rate. Incidence rate of adverse events (serious and non-serious) is 0.05%.

The Ministry of Health publishes the vaccination status of Singapore Residents, but had not yet included the youngest age group as their vaccination exercise had only started towards the end of last year. As more in this age group are taking up the vaccine, we will consider adding it to support our public health strategy.