Nearly a year after the first COVID-19 cases were detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, vaccinations to provide immunity against the disease were introduced. The first shipment of the vaccines, developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, arrived in Singapore on 21 December 2020, kickstarting Singapore’s national vaccination programme. Using the new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is administered over two primary doses and is known to have a higher efficacy against COVID-19 over conventional vaccine methods. Along with the other mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is part of Singapore’s national vaccination programme, where all eligible Singaporeans and long-term residents are highly encouraged to get vaccinated to mitigate infection and the risk of transmission as Singapore seeks to transit from pandemic towards an endemic state. This vial contained the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine administered on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in January 2021.
