The giant pharmaceutical Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have gained one more important client worldwide as Singapore approves of its vaccine.

On Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that his country would be receiving the shots by the year end and that he would be one of the early receivers of the vaccine.

“My colleagues and I, including the older ones, will be getting ourselves vaccinated early. This is to show you, especially seniors like me, that we believe the vaccines are safe,” Lee said in a broadcast.

Authorities also said that the country had signed purchase agreements with major vaccine producers well in advance and had also advanced early down payments to vaccine developers who showed promise such as Moderna and Sinovac. They also said that the government has kept aside more than a billion dollars for vaccines.

“We have acquired sufficient doses of all the vaccines for all Singaporeans and long-term residents,” the health ministry’s  director of medical briefing, Kenneth Mak, informed media at a recent briefing.

Prime Minister Lee also said that they would lift a few curbs put in place during the pandemic. From December 28, groups of eight will be allowed to get together in public, the earlier limit being five.

Singapore has had a tally of over 58,000 cases, out of which only 29 people died. This is one of the lowest fatality rates, worldwide. According to a Reuters tally, over 70 million people around the world have been infected by the coronavirus and there have been 1.61 million deaths.

Source CNBC

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