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Singapore offers walk-in COVID-19 vaccination for kids from Mondays to Thursdays

A vaccination centre in Singapore.
A vaccination centre in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan RahmanAFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — From Tuesday (25 January), children in Singapore aged five to 11 will be able to walk in with their parents or guardians to any paediatric vaccination centre (VC) to receive their first COVID-19 vaccination without the need for a prior appointment.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said in a media release on Monday that this walk-in arrangement is applicable only from Mondays to Thursdays, and parents who intend to vaccinate their child under this arrangement should arrive at the VCs by 7pm (5pm for the VC at Yusof Ishak Secondary School).

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.

On the day of the vaccination, parents should bring along their children's student identification, or if not available, other forms of identification for verification. They will also be required to bring a signed hard or soft copy of the parental consent form.

Under this new walk-in arrangement, parents who are registering online for paediatric COVID-19 vaccination will no longer have to wait up to five working days to receive a unique SMS booking link to book a vaccination appointment for their children, unless they wish to make bookings on Fridays to Sundays.

They are also encouraged to release any bookings made should they wish to vaccinate their children under this walk-in arrangement.

Close to 160,000 kids aged 5 to 11 have taken 1st dose

MOE said in its media release that, as of Sunday, 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 dose.

In addition, more than 6,000 children have taken advantage of the “sibling walk-in” arrangement implemented on 10 January, whereby all accompanying siblings of a child with a vaccination appointment on Mondays to Thursdays can walk in for their vaccination without prior appointment.

MOE added that 70 per cent of students in its primary schools have registered for vaccination, with 85 per cent of Primary 6 students having done so.

It has also received more than 23,000 registrations from all children aged 5 to 11 on the MOH National Appointment System. Of these, there are over 13,000 children of typical pre-school age (born between 2016 and 2017) with more than 10,000 children from preschools and kindergartens having registered their interest.

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