Sufficient Flu Vaccines Pre-Ordered for Singaporeans: Report

Sufficient flu vaccines pre-ordered for Singaporeans: Report

SINGAPORE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — Channel NewsAsia report said Friday that sufficient flu vaccines have been pre-ordered for the entire population in Singapore.

“We will establish advance contract with a particular pharmaceutical company, so that in the event of a pandemic, our supply will be assured,” Jeffery Cutter, deputy director of Communicable Diseases Policy at the Ministry of Health (MOH), was quoted as saying.

The Economic Development Board is contacting different pharmaceutical manufacturers to explore the opportunity of setting up a vaccine plant in Singapore, he added.

Inoculation is expected to be done within a week once the vaccine supplies are available here, according to the report, which also outlined some of the measures to be taken if the situation worsens.

Under the MOH’s Pandemic Preparedness Plan, temperature screening at airports will start when the color-coded warning system is on yellow or orange alert.

When it reaches the red level, all the 18 polyclinics nationwide will be turned into flu treatment centers while public hospitals will leave elective treatments to private ones. Schools will be closed and public gatherings like movies reduced in such case.

Singapore’s borders will be closed, curfews imposed and food supply disrupted if the code turns black.

Currently, it is on green alert as the bird flu outbreaks are overseas and limited to birds and some humans who were in close contact with birds and poultry.

The report added that various government agencies will test their flu pandemic contingency plans in a few months.

It is estimated that up to 25 percent of the city state’s 4 million population could be hit by a flu pandemic, among whom some 11,000 people may need to be hospitalized.