SINGAPORE. Changi Airport Group (CAG) has overseen the administering of the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 36,500 aviation workers. It comes after the company set up Singapore’s largest vaccine centre (VC) at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4 in just seven days.
As of 9 February, more than 4,000 workers had completed their second dose, as part of the Singapore government’s concerted move to keep the country’s air borders and its link to the outside world open. The Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) made the decision to start vaccinating the aviation community against COVID-19 immediately after prioritising healthcare workers.
In addition to existing safe management measures at the airport, CAG said the vaccination is the next key enabler to protect the country and prepare Changi Airport to emerge stronger from COVID-19.
“The team is heartened to witness so many people coming forward to get vaccinated. Together, we can achieve herd immunity soon” – Changi Airport Group Senior Manager Kirk Chua
With operations suspended in T4, the location was chosen as the VC to facilitate a smooth inoculation process for front line air crew and airport workers, without impacting continuing airport operations.
With the location confirmed, CAG set up various taskforces to plan the vaccination schedule, as well as arranging for the physical set up of the VC in partnership with Raffles Medical Group (RMH).
The CAG team also aligned with the MOH on operational matters to ensure that the correct number of vaccines would be supplied to the VC daily.
At the current peak, 3,000 people can receive the COVID-19 jab each day. The VC is expected to be scaled up to administer vaccines for between 4,000 and 8,000 people in the near future, as the government plans towards opening the centre at T4 to the community.
Leading the VC set up team was Changi Airport Group Senior Manager, Ground Operations & Customer Service, Airport Operations Management Kirk Chua. He said: “It was an honour to be given this opportunity to set up the VC in T4, together with my fellow colleagues and RMG. We transformed T4 from its suspension mode into a VC in just seven days, to facilitate more than 3,000 people per day for their vaccination.”
He added: “The team is heartened to witness so many people coming forward to get vaccinated. Together, we can achieve herd immunity soon.”
