Moderna vaccine given Singapore nod

Moderna's coronavirus vaccine has been granted interim authorisation for  use  in Singapore for people aged 18 years and above.

The vaccination regime submitted by Moderna requires two doses of the vaccine to be administered 28 days apart. The approval was given by the Health Sciences Authority, Channel News Asia reports.

The first shipment is expected to arrive around March if there are no disruptions to the shipment schedule, said the Ministry of Health, adding that it would "progressively roll out" the vaccine.

"HSA’s review of the available clinical data found that the benefits of the Moderna vaccine outweigh the known risks," said the agency in a press release.

"The vaccine demonstrated a high vaccine efficacy of 94 percent."

Moderna's vaccine is the second vaccine to be granted interim authorisation under the Pandemic Special Access Route. The Pfizer-BioNTech was the first to be approved in Singapore.