• More than 100 applications have been approved under the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme
• Close to 160 of the 292 applications received as of June 25 were rejected
• Thirty-one applications are still pending review or more medical information

SINGAPORE — The authorities have approved S$451,000 worth of financial aid to people who had suffered serious side effects from Covid-19 vaccines in Singapore, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Tuesday (July 6).

The payments have either been paid out or are being processed to 102 applicants under the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme (Vifap) introduced by the Government in January.

They were among a total of 292 applicants who had submitted a complete Vifap application as of June 25, Mr Ong said.

Of these, 159 did not meet the eligibility criteria and 31 applications are waiting to be reviewed by an independent clinical panel or pending more medical information from the applicant’s doctor.

Mr Ong was responding in a written answer to a parliamentary question filed by Ms He Ting Ru, Member of Parliament for Sengkang Group Representation Constituency, who had asked about the applications made and payments approved under the programme.

TODAY has asked the Ministry of Health (MOH) for details of these approved payouts.

Vifap provides three tiers of support to people assessed to be adversely affected by their Covid-19 inoculation.

The first is a one-time payout of S$2,000 for patients who need hospitalisation and medical intervention and who later recover.

The second is a payout of up to S$10,000 that will be given to those who were hospitalised and required care in a high dependency or intensive care unit, but later recover from the side effects caused by the vaccine.

The third is a payout of S$225,000 that will be provided when a person dies or suffers permanent severe disability as a result of the vaccination.

To qualify, the applicant must be a Singaporean, permanent resident or long-term pass holder who received their vaccination in the country.

The applicant must also have “experienced a serious side effect that is potentially life-threatening or fatal, or has required inpatient hospitalisation or has caused persistent incapacity or disability”, MOH said on its website.

These serious side effects must be assessed by a doctor to be linked to the Covid-19 vaccination.

The application will then be assessed and decided by an independent clinical panel comprising experts in relevant fields such as neurology, immunology and infectious diseases.

In May, then-Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong had said in Parliament that the Government had approved payment for 30 applicants under Vifap out of 104 applications that were received. 

These included 21 cases of hypersensitivity allergic reactions, four related to neurology, three to cardiology, one to haematology and one that was a dermatology-related case.

Forty-five applications had been rejected as of May 3.

Mr Gan did not specify then how much were the payouts for these 30 applications.

The Health Sciences Authority said on Monday that 252 reports of side effects from a Covid-19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine have been classified as a serious adverse event as of June 30, making up 0.005 per cent of the 5,470,425 administered doses.

Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are the only two vaccines that have been approved under the national voluntary vaccination programme.

People here also have a choice of going to selected clinics to receive the Sinovac vaccine, which uses inactivated viruses, but any serious side effects arising from the inoculation will not be covered under Vifap.