17 COVID-19 Cases Today (12 Jan); All Are Imported Cases

2021 is starting to look goody after all.

Today (12 January 2021), as of 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 17 new cases of COVID-19 infection.

All of them are imported cases.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 58,946.

Based on yesterday’s figures, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 9 cases in the week before to 8 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 3 cases in the week before to 5 cases in the past week.

S’pore Will Have COVID-19 Vaccination Centres; Jabs Also Available in Polyclinics & GP Clinics

Singapore’s chief health scientist, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, told the media that “soon”, Singapore will have Covid-19 vaccination centres.

These centres, he said, will allow a “large number of people” to be vaccinated.

But vaccination isn’t just going to be provided at these centres.

Polyclinics, public health preparedness clinics (PHPC) and GP clinics will also be able to offer the Covid-19 vaccination jabs soon too.

This way, people in Singapore are able to get a more convenient and comfortable vaccination experience.

Don’t Skip The Second Dose Because The First Makes You Uncomfortable.

For those who want to know how vaccines work, you can read more here.

But basically, what a vaccine does is to introduce a weakened version of the virus into your body, inducing your body into producing the protein that’ll give you immunity to the virus.

This means that the side effects of the jab could result in minor side effects like pain and fever, but that’s perfectly normal.

Professor Tan hopes that people will not be put off from getting the second dose because of the side effects.

He stressed that several of the first vaccine takers were on the Expert Committee on Covid-19 vaccination.

He’s spoken with them and, so far, they are all “fine”.

You can only get the full protection if you get the two required doses, spaced 21 days apart.

While they’re still investigating the duration of immunity granted by the vaccine, they expect it to be one to two years even though the official data from Pfizer only said three months.

Current Status Of Vaccination

So far, many people have taken the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, the only vaccine approved for use in Singapore to date.

Other than the first batch previously reported, 80 Home Team officers and 50 eldercare workers from Ren Ci’s Bukit Batok nursing home have taken the jab.

1,050 more Home Team officers are expected to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

PM Lee has also taken the jab and he’s doing fine so far.

The authorities will also go all-in to share information and educate people in Singapore about the Covid-19 vaccine to encourage more to get vaccinated.

Something that’s sorely needed given how misinformation about Covid-19 is so prevalent in Singapore’s unofficial news sources (read: WhatsApp).

Featured Image: Rajaraman Arumugam / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)