No Vaccination Appointment Required for Children Aged 5 to 11 from Mondays to Thursdays

1. From 25 January 2022, children aged 5 to 11 will be able to walk in with their parents/guardians to any paediatric vaccination centre (VC) to receive their first vaccination without the need for a prior appointment¹. As such, parents/guardians who currently have to first register at child.vaccine.gov.sg will now no longer have to wait up to 5 working days to receive a unique booking link via SMS to book a vaccination appointment, unless they wish to make a booking on Fridays to Sundays.

2. This general walk-in arrangement is only applicable from Mondays to Thursdays, and parents/guardians who intend to vaccinate their child/ward under this arrangement should arrive at the VC by 7pm². VCs are currently unable to accommodate the general walk-in arrangement on Fridays to Sundays due to high demand in appointment bookings on these days. We seek the understanding and cooperation of parents/guardians to keep to the stipulated days and hours for the general walk-in arrangement, to ensure that we can provide a smooth and orderly vaccination process for all our children. Parents/guardians are also encouraged to release any bookings made should they wish to vaccinate their child/ward under this arrangement. On the day of the vaccination, parents/guardians should bring along Student Identification, or if not available, other forms of identification (e.g. Birth Certificate/Passport/SingPass) for verification. Parents/guardians will also be required to bring a signed hard or soft copy of the parental consent form, which can be downloaded at https://go.gov.sg/parcf.

Updates on Vaccination Progress

3. As of 23 January 2022, close to 160,000 children aged between 5 to 11 have already received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 13,000 children have since received their second dose³. In addition, more than 6,000 children have taken advantage of the "sibling walk-in" arrangement⁴. 70% of students in MOE primary schools have registered for vaccination, with 85% of Primary 6 students having done so.

4. We have also received more than 23,000 registrations from all children aged 5 to 11 on the MOH National Appointment System at child.vaccine.gov.sg. Of these, there are over 13,000 children of typical pre-school age, i.e. born between 2016 and 2017, with more than 10,000 children from ECDA-licensed preschools and MOE Kindergartens having registered their interest.

5. Vaccination is a key measure to protect our children against COVID-19 infection and especially against severe outcomes. With the rise in cases locally and the Omicron variant already on our shores, we strongly encourage parents/guardians to get their child/ward fully vaccinated as soon as possible. This will also be a key factor in whether our schools can resume more activities that are important to the holistic development of our children.

Footnotes

1. Previously, only accompanying siblings of a child with an appointment on Mondays to Thursdays could walk in for their vaccination without a prior appointment under the "sibling walk-in" arrangement.

2. Parents/guardians who intend to vaccinate their child/ward without a prior appointment at Yusof Ishak Secondary School (YISS) should arrive at the VC by 5pm on Tuesdays to Thursdays. The VC at YISS is closed on Mondays. The full list of the 15 paediatric VCs can be found in our 21 December 2021 press release (https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/20211221-protecting-our-children-from-covid-19-with-vaccination-for-5-to-11-year-olds).

3. The second dose was first administered on 17 January 2022.

4. The "sibling walk-in" arrangement was implemented on 10 January 2022.