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On Jan. 3, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that parents or guardians with more than one child or ward aged five to 11 can have them vaccinated at the same appointment under the "sibling walk-in" arrangement from Jan. 10.

This is to provide greater convenience for parents and guardians with more than one child or ward as well as to optimise available vaccination capacity on Mondays to Thursdays, MOE said.

"Sibling walk-in"

From Jan. 10, siblings of a child with an appointment booked on Mondays to Thursdays can walk in together for their vaccination without a prior appointment.

Parents and guardians who wish to vaccinate their children and wards under the "siblings walk-in" arrangement should arrive at the vaccination centre (VC) by 7pm.

Parents and guardians who intend to vaccinate their children and wards under the “siblings walk-in” arrangement at the paediatric vaccination centre at Yusof Ishak Secondary School (YISS) should arrive by 5pm on Mondays to Thursdays, from Jan. 11 onwards.

They need to bring the Student Identification or other forms of identification (e.g. Birth Certificate/Passport/SingPass) of all children and wards receiving the vaccination for verification.

MOE encourages parents and guardians who have booked separate appointments for different children and wards to keep only one desired slot and cancel the remaining bookings on National Appointment System (NAS).

As the children must be accompanied by one parent or guardian, it would suffice for one parent or guardian to be present for children going for the same vaccination appointment.

However, MOE will exercise flexibility and allow one parent or guardian per child, should there be requests from the parent or guardian.

Due to the high demand in appointment bookings for the next few weekends, MOE is currently unable to accommodate the sibling walk-in arrangement on Fridays to Sundays.

Students will be deemed to be on medical leave if they receive their vaccination during school hours, or feel unwell from the vaccination, MOE said.

MOE added that schools will make the necessary arrangements to help them with schoolwork if needed, and ensure that students do not engage in physically strenuous activities for two weeks after vaccination.

Paediatric vaccination webinar

MOE, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), will be holding a webinar for parents and guardians.

It will be held on Jan. 5 (Wednesday), from 7:30pm to 8:30pm, to address concerns or queries that they may have on Covid-19 vaccination for children.

The webinar is open to 3,000 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.

Parents and guardians can attend the webinar here with the meeting passcode (5janvac) and submit questions here before the session.

MOE: More than six in 10 of Primary 4 to 6 students have registered for vaccination

As of Jan. 2, 6pm, more than six in 10 of Primary 4 to 6 students in MOE primary schools have registered for vaccination, MOE said in the press release.

Another 9,000 children aged nine to 11 who are not in MOE primary schools have registered their interest on the MOH NAS.

From Jan. 3, seven more paediatric VCs have started offering vaccinations for children aged five to 11.

MOE is now ready to support the next phase of the paediatric vaccination roll-out, with increased capacity and greater convenience to parents so that all medically eligible children can be vaccinated as soon as possible, the press release added.

From Jan. 5, 110,000 parents and guardians of Primary 1 to 3 students in MOE primary schools can expect to progressively receive a unique link via SMS to book a vaccination appointment.

From Jan. 6, parents and guardians of all remaining children aged five to eight may proceed to register their interest on  the NAS.

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Top image via Chan Chun Sing/ Facebook.