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 vaccines, developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, arrived in Singapore in December 2020 while the ones produced by Moderna arrived in February 2021. Using the new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are administered over two primary doses and are known to have a higher efficacy against COVID-19 over conventional vaccine methods. Both vaccines are 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 first dose of the Moderna vaccine administered on Singapore’s Minister of State Gan Siow Huang in 2021.
