SINGAPORE: More than 2,000 people have been exempted from COVID-19 vaccination-differentiated restrictions due to adverse reactions to vaccines, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday (Oct 3) in Parliament.
In response to questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) on excess deaths due to COVID-19 among those medically ineligible to be fully vaccinated, he said MOH does not comprehensively track these numbers.
But he revealed that as at Jun 30, 2,100 people had successfully applied for exemption from vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS).
For this group, the observed rate of deaths was around two in 1,000, compared to 0.3 in 1,000 for the whole population.
“In reality, the number of people who are ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines is small, given the vaccine options available,” said Mr Ong.
Last month, the Health Ministry released a report showing that Singapore had recorded an estimated 2,490 excess deaths during the pandemic from January 2020 to June 2022.
This refers to the difference between actual deaths from all causes since the pandemic began, and expected deaths if there had not been COVID-19.
The report stated that nearly three in five excess deaths in Singapore during the pandemic were directly caused by the coronavirus, and the remainder were patients who had died of other illnesses within 90 days of being infected.
“Our death rate essentially went back to 2018 levels, wiping out improvements over a few years,” said Mr Ong.
He noted that compared to other countries that have opened up, Singapore’s number of excess deaths is much lower, based on estimates for 2020 and 2021 by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO figures put Singapore’s excess deaths at 26 per 100,000 persons per year.