5 new joint testing and vaccination centres for COVID-19 to begin operations from Jun 23

SINGAPORE: Five new Joint Testing and Vaccination Centres (JTVCs) will begin operations from Thursday (Jun 23). 

The five new centres – located in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Sengkang, Woodlands and Yishun – will bring the total number of such centres in Singapore to 10. 

These centres will offer the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty and Moderna/Spikevax COVID-19 vaccines, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday. 

“Individuals aged 12 years and above may walk into any of the JTVCs to receive their vaccination and booster,” said MOH.

It added that the vaccination centre at Raffles City Convention Centre will be closed on Jul 18, as Singapore “step(s) up more JTVCs and consolidate our resources and free up this space for other uses”.

The centre will accept bookings made via the national appointment system and walk-ins for vaccination until Jul 18.

The other five existing JTVCs are located in Bishan, Commonwealth, Jurong East, Kaki Bukit, and Pasir Ris. The centre in Bishan, located at the former Bishan Park Secondary School, also offers Novavax’s Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine. 

Novavax’s Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine was given interim authorisation in February for use in Singapore as part of the national vaccination programme. It is the fourth vaccine available under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR), after the ones by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinovac.

It will be available to individuals who have not taken their primary doses or booster shots. 

Those who are medically ineligible to receive the mRNA vaccines should consider the Nuvaxovid vaccine, said MOH. 

MOH previously announced that vaccination centres will be stepped down progressively with the majority of the population vaccinated.

The joint testing and vaccination centres are set up to ensure that COVID-19 testing and vaccination services remain accessible to the general public.

“Vaccinations are critical to protect us against severe illness when infected with COVID-19, especially given the uptick in cases. In this regard, we strongly recommend that seniors aged 70 years and above (and especially those aged 80 years and above) take their second booster shot,” said MOH.

Those who are eligible should complete their primary vaccination series and get at least their first booster as soon as possible, said the ministry. It added that mobile vaccination teams will soon be deployed to help seniors get boosted.

INCREASE IN COMMUNITY CASES

On Tuesday, MOH also said that there has been a 23 per cent week-on-week increase in COVID-19 community cases, “largely driven” by the increased spread of Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

The surge in BA.4 and BA.5 cases is likely to continue, driven by their higher transmissibility compared to BA.2, said the ministry.

Singapore recorded 7,109 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with 6,393 of them being locally transmitted cases.

There have been 1,378,090 COVID-19 cases in Singapore since the start of the pandemic.