First Shipment of COVID-19 Vaccine by S’pore Researchers Expected in S’pore in Early 2021

Throughout these few months of Covid-19, there’s one statement that keeps bouncing around in your mind:

Covid-19 will only truly be over when there is a vaccine. 

No vaccine, no end to Covid-19.

Only when you have a vaccine can the world move back to full normalcy.

Well, guess what?

Our “return to normalcy” might come as early as early-2021.

First Shipment of COVID-19 Vaccine by S’pore Researchers Expected in S’pore in Early 2021

According to ST, Singapore might get its hands on vaccines as early as early-2021.

Remember the vaccine that Singapore is working on together with an American pharmaceutical company?

Well, preliminary results from the early clinical trials in Singapore is positive.

So positive that the Economic Development Board (EDB) is pumping in over S$60 million to manufacture the vaccine.

As previously stated, Singapore has “first claim” to the vaccine and is allowed to purchase up to S$75 million worth of vaccines from the company.

Provided everything goes smoothly, shipments of the vaccine could arrive in Singapore by the first three months of 2021.

Single-Dose Vaccine

According to Duke-NUS Medical School’s Professor Ooi Eng Eong, the results so far show that the vaccine is effective as a single dose.

“The vaccine has the potential to provide important public health benefits by greatly facilitating broad administration across multiple populations worldwide.”

The early-stage trials showed that there was no danger, and adverse reactions, to the newly-developed vaccine.

Human immune response was also positive during the trials, and antibody and T-cells were both observed in volunteers.

To find out more about why these are good news and how vaccines work, you can check out this article that simplifies everything for you here.

Another Covid-19 Vaccine That’s Close To 100% Done

The vaccine funded by Singapore isn’t the only one that has promising results.

The other vaccine, developed by American multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, could be ready as early as this year.

The company has been testing 4 different Covid-19 vaccines since May 2020 and announced, on 9 Nov, that one of them was more than 90% effective.

They’re now waiting for data on safety, which is expected to come in later in Nov 2020.

Both Pfizer and Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings are ready to ramp up production of their vaccines once the development and trial stages are over.

It was also previously outlined that should a vaccine be available, the vulnerable (read: the elderly) would get it first, followed by the healthcare staff who takes care of Covid-19 patients.

It will then be gradually rolled out to the rest of the population.

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