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The delay in the Northern Hemisphere vaccine comes amid increased demand for flu jabs.<\/p>\n
Of 11 clinics contacted by CNA on Thursday, three said they had run out of the Southern Hemisphere vaccine, while another said it had little stock left.<\/p>\n
A staff member at Leong Clinic in Redhill said the clinic had not had flu vaccines available for one to two months and was unsure when new supplies would arrive.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the clinic had not seen many patients seeking flu vaccinations, so there had been no \u201cpanic\u201d, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n At Silver Cross Medical (Holland), up to 10 people a day have been visiting for flu vaccinations, an employee said. The clinic, which is under Healthway Medical,<\/span> ran out of flu vaccines last month and has been referring patients to other clinics.<\/p>\n Healthway Medical, which runs over 60 GP clinics in Singapore, told CNA on Thursday that it was facing a delay in the delivery of the Northern Hemisphere vaccine.<\/p>\n The delay is \u201cin line with global supply timelines\u201d, and the GP network expects the new strain to be available at its clinics by mid-October, said Dr John Cheng, chief medical officer at Healthway Medical Group.<\/p>\n Healthway Medical, Raffles Medical and Parkway Shenton told CNA they have seen increased demand for influenza vaccinations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAcross our Healthway Medical GP Clinics, we have observed a steady increase in the demand for flu vaccinations in the three-week period following the National Day long weekend,\u201d said Dr Cheng, adding that the uptake was higher than usual.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe attribute (this) to seasonal factors including travel and school holidays,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Lim Wee Peng, medical director at Parkway Shenton, said it had seen a 15 per cent increase in demand since before the June school holidays as more families were travelling at that time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Raffles Medical, demand has also steadily increased over the last few months, said Dr Chng Shih Kiat, executive medical director of Raffles Physicians.<\/span><\/p>\n Parkway Shenton and Raffles Medical said they expect their current vaccine supplies to remain sufficient if demand increases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe will work with our pharmaceutical vendors to ensure the continued availability of vaccine,\u201d said Dr Chng.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Cheng said Healthway Medical\u2019s clinics had enough flu vaccines to meet current patient demand.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are closely monitoring stock levels across our network and working with our suppliers to ensure timely replenishment to support continued demand,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Whether travellers should wait for the Northern Hemisphere vaccine depends on when they are travelling, their destination and their health status, Dr Chng said.<\/p>\n The Northern Hemisphere vaccine is recommended for people at higher risk of developing complications from influenza who are travelling to places such as the US, Europe or Japan between December and February, he said.<\/p>\n These include those aged 65 and above and individuals with chronic heart and lung diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, if an individual is travelling sooner or is in the aforementioned high-risk group, it might be ideal to consult with your family physician to check if the current available formulations offer adequate immediate protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Individuals, especially seniors and young children, who have not received a seasonal influenza vaccination can consider taking the Southern Hemisphere flu vaccine to protect themselves for now, Dr Cheng said.<\/p>\n Those who receive the Southern Hemisphere vaccine this year should still get the Northern Hemisphere vaccine when it becomes available because of changes in the strain composition between the two vaccines, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cA minimum interval of eight weeks between the two doses should be observed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor travellers, it is recommended that they receive any influenza vaccine at least two weeks before their planned trips.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SOME CLINICS SEE VACCINE SHORTAGES The delay in the Northern Hemisphere vaccine comes amid increased demand for flu jabs. Of 11 clinics contacted by CNA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--acw0zGYL--\/c_crop,h_388,w_690,x_0,y_490\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/04\/flu_vaccine_out_of_stock.jpg?itok=kVFy5X_r","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1429,1709,6053,29474,7426,1144,22,6436,362],"class_list":["post-82243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-delayed","tag-early","tag-flu","tag-hemisphere","tag-northern","tag-october","tag-singapore","tag-vaccines","tag-weeks","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}SHOULD TRAVELLERS WAIT FOR THE NEW VACCINE?<\/h2>\n
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