SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore on Tuesday received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech, its health ministry said, although the shot is still awaiting approval for use in the city-state.
Sinovac has begun transmitting the initial data, but the Health Sciences Authority is currently awaiting all the information needed to conduct a thorough assessment, the ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.
Singapore is the only rich country considering the use of the Sinovac vaccine, which has been shown to have an efficacy rate of about 50% to 90% in studies.
The city-state has launched its COVID-19 vaccination program in the last two months. It has approved photos from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
The government has previously refused to provide specific details on transactions with vaccine manufacturers.
As an island nation heavily dependent on travel and trade, the Singapore government wants to boost its economy with the vaccine. Singapore aims to vaccinate its entire population of almost six million people by the end of 2021.
Singapore has reported very few new cases of local coronavirus in the last few months.
Since the outbreak, it has recorded a total of almost 60,000 infections, most of them in homes of overcrowded foreign workers. Only 29 people have died from the disease in Singapore, according to its health ministry.
China, Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand are among the countries that have approved the Sinovac vaccine.
Reporting by Chen Lin; Edited by Ed Davies