We came across this message being forwarded on Telegram:
The author of the message states that the ‘expiry date’ for an individual’s vaccination status is mentioned on the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) website, and it lasts 270 days for the “COVID-infected” and 365 days for fully-vaccinated individuals. The author added that an individual’s vaccination status can only be “renewed through boosters”.
On 4 October, Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament that people’s vaccination status on their TraceTogether app “will not change regardless of whether they have taken their booster shots”. This was in response to Member of Parliament Yip Hon Weng’s query on whether the definition of “fully vaccinated” would be changed to differentiate those who have taken the booster jab, and how the status would be reflected in the TraceTogether app.
Mr Ong said that they are currently “administering boosters in good time, and so the issue of expiring vaccination status has not arisen […] But in time, this is an issue that we will need to review.”
When we did a search on MOH’s FAQ pages on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, post-vaccination matters, and the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, there was also no indication of “vaccinated status expiry date” nor the point that the status needs to be “renewed” by booster shots. It is therefore uncertain which “MOH websites” he/she were referring to.
While there is a mention on the FAQ page on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine that MOH “have evidence that there is waning protection against infection over time, particularly with the Delta variant”, and that “booster vaccination is therefore needed to reduce COVID-19 infection and transmission”, there is once again no mention that individuals’ vaccinated status will expire, or that boosters are necessary to maintain this status.
Curious as to find out where the author could come across the details “270 days for covid infected” and “365 days for fully vaccinated”, we did a search on Google using the keywords “270 days 365 days vaccine singapore” and found an updated advisory (issued on 23 October) on the Ministry of Manpower’s website about COVID-19 vaccination in the workplace.
In the advisory, we read that the Multi-Ministry Taskforce announced that starting from 1 January 2022, only employees who are vaccinated, or have recovered from COVID-19 within 270 days, can return to the workplace. All unvaccinated employees will not be allowed at the workplace unless they have a negative Pre-Event Testing (PET) result. There is no mention of ‘365 days’ anywhere in the advisory.
Therefore, while Health Minister Ong Ye Kung mentioned that the issue of expiring vaccination status will be something that needs to be reviewed in the future, it is false, at this point of time, that the vaccination status of individuals will expire and can only be renewed by boosters.
