Pfizer shipment makes Singapore first in Asia to receive COVID-19 vaccine

Singapore became the first Asian country to receive COVID-19 shots with the delivery of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Monday evening.

The vaccine shipment was flown from Belgium by Singapore Airlines and was received by Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung at Changi airport.

Singapore is expecting vaccines from other manufacturers on the way in the coming months, expecting to have enough for everyone by the third quarter of next year.

Singapore will make the vaccinations available for free, but getting inoculated will be voluntary.

Moderna also agreed to supply its COVID-19 vaccine to Singapore.

The city-state is about to ease the restriction it had imposed in a semi-lockdown beginning April this year.

With a population of about 5.7 million, Singapore has reported just over 58,000 cases of infection so far, with most of them occurring in migrant workers.