S$140m of expired COVID-19 vaccines was 'insurance' to avoid catastrophic economic impact, more deaths: Ong Ye Kung - CNA

SINGAPORE: About 15 per cent of Singapore's COVID-19 vaccine doses worth S$140 million have expired, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament on Tuesday (Mar 21), calling it a price the country was prepared to pay.

"The expiry of unused vaccines was an insurance premium – the price we were prepared to pay to stave off the risk of catastrophic consequences," he added.

Mr Ong noted that before COVID-19 vaccines became available, Singapore resorted to implementing a "circuit breaker" in April 2020 in a bid to contain the pandemic. 

"The two-month circuit breaker cost us around S$11 billion in terms of GDP loss. And we spent close to another S$60 billion over two financial years to cushion the hardship for businesses and workers, not to mention all the heartaches, the difficulties families had to go through," he said.

"Without vaccines, we would certainly have had to resort to further circuit breakers during the Delta and Omicron waves of late 2021 and then throughout 2022. But we did not have to, because the vaccines - we got them early, and they protected us.

"More importantly, our approach averted many deaths due to COVID-19 infections and protected Singaporeans against that catastrophic consequence."

Speaking during the debate on the White Paper on Singapore's response to COVID-19, the Health Minister said Singapore had "deliberately over-procured" to mitigate the uncertainty of selected vaccine candidates not working, and the possibility of supply chains being disrupted.

And this meant having spare vaccine stock, which would expire.

The White Paper, which drew on a review conducted by former head of civil service Peter Ho, concluded that Singapore's COVID-19 vaccine strategy paid off.

The government recognised “very early on” that vaccines were the most promising exit strategy and worked to secure early access, according to the White Paper which was published earlier this month.

This meant Singapore had to “place bets, at substantial cost, on potential game-changers” before trials were completed, it added.

As of Dec 31 last year, Singapore's mortality rate for COVID-19 was around 300 deaths per million, said Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his closing speech later in the afternoon.

This was "much lower" compared to other countries with five or 10 times the mortality rate, he added.

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2023-03-21 07:13:00Z
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