More than 60% of 3,900 special education school students have registered for COVID-19 vaccination: MOE

SINGAPORE: More than 60 per cent of 3,900 special education (SPED) school students invited for COVID-19 vaccination have registered for their jabs, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Wednesday (Jan 12).

The vaccination exercise for students aged six to 11 in SPED schools began on Wednesday in four schools – Katong School, Lighthouse School, Lee Kong Chian Gardens School and Towner Gardens School.

Vaccinations will be progressively rolled out to all 20 SPED schools with eligible students, said MOE. 

Mobile vaccination teams from the Health Promotion Board will be progressively deployed to these schools, with special arrangements in place to help children with greater needs to get vaccinated.

Ahead of the start of the vaccination exercise for SPED schools, MOE and the Health Ministry (MOH) jointly organised two webinars on Dec 29, 2021, and Jan 6 this year to address questions from parents.

"Vaccination will help to protect our children against serious side effects of COVID-19. We strongly encourage parents/guardians to get their child/ward vaccinated if they are medically eligible," MOE said.

Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said in Parliament on Monday that MOH has not received any report of serious adverse events or myocarditis from vaccination in children aged five to 11.

Most side effects have been mild, such as fatigue and fever, and were typically resolved in a few days, he said. 

As of Jan 7, about 123,000 children between five and 11 in Singapore have received at least one dose of the vaccine or booked vaccination appointments, said Dr Puthucheary.

Currently, only the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine is approved for use in children aged five to 11.