SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) will bring forward the administration of the Moderna/Spikevax bivalent vaccine to Oct 14, three days ahead of the previously announced date, the ministry said on Tuesday (Oct 11).
The early rollout was made possible by the ministry’s operations teams completing preparations ahead of the deadline.
In addition, there are “benefits to administering early as infections are rising due to the XBB Omicron subvariant”, said MOH.
The XBB strain, also known as BA.2.10, has been detected in several countries such as Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan and the USA since August. Based on preliminary local data, MOH said, XBB cases are not more serious than other Omicron subvariants.
“The bivalent Moderna/Spikevax vaccine is based on the same original vaccine, with the same dosage for boosting,” added MOH.
“Instead of targeting only the original COVID-19 virus, the updated version also targets the Omicron variant. It therefore will provide better protection against newer COVID-19 variants. It is proven to be safe and effective.”
The ministry added that the approach and process of updating a vaccine with new strains of a disease is an “established practice”. It added that based on post market surveillance, to date more than 11 million updated bivalent mRNA vaccine doses have been administered in the US without any safety concerns reported.