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A Chinese man went all the way to Singapore just to get a Covid-19 booster shot.

The man, who asked to stay anonymous, told Mothership that he could have gone to Hong Kong or Macau for the shot, but would have had to "jump through hoops".

He also claimed that he could get a booster shot of Sinopharm or Sinovac whenever he wanted, but he felt he needed "better protection from the newer variants".

Hong Kong & Macau "twice the price"

He said there were obstacles involved in getting a booster shot in Hong Kong and Macau.

For example, he would have to first pay through a shopping platform, after which he could make a booking for the shot in a hospital, which may not have a slot any time soon.

Instead, he felt that it's much simpler coming to Singapore. "All I needed to do was to book a readily available slot with Raffles Hospital," he said.

The price Raffles Hospital quoted for his Moderna/Spikevax bivalent booster shot was S$130, which is around S$140.40 after the 8 per cent GST. According to him, a mRNA booster shot costs almost twice that in Hong Kong and Macau.

However, he had to pay around S$1,600 for a round trip to Singapore.

Wants to stay covid-free to protect family

He knew it cost more, but he felt he had to do his part to protect his family.

"I'm fortunate not to contract Covid-19 before and have not lost any immediate family members or close relatives to the disease. I hope by taking the booster shot I can stay covid-free, so my unvaccinated grandparents living with me won't be exposed to it."

Another consideration for the man is that he felt there's less animosity towards people from China in Singapore.

China developing their own mRNA vaccines

He claimed that he was not the only person in his country with similar concerns, even though he observed that the situation in China is stabilising.

As of Dec. 2022, China has not approved the use of any foreign vaccines, opting not to use mRNA vaccines developed in Western countries.

Instead, it has depended on domestically produced vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm, which are based on older technology that uses the inactivated virus to elicit an immune response.

The man feels that the government should be "more open" towards the technology. He feels the government has always been "wary" about new technologies, "especially when they are foreign."

However, Chinese companies are developing mRNA booster vaccines, with one, the CS-2034 by CanSino Biologics, entering its trial production phase on Jan. 5.

Another booster, WalVax, was granted emergency approval by Indonesian authorities in Oct. 2022, despite still being in the trial stage.

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Top image via Mothership/Leah Jinghui & Unsplash.