The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) released a joint statement on 15 December.
The statement said that a new local study has found that people who receive two doses of the Sinovac vaccine are more likely to develop severe diseases from Covid-19 than those who got vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, which are mRNA-based.
The study found that the Sinovac vaccine was only 60% effective against severe illnesses, in comparison to Pfizer’s 90% and Moderna’s 97%.
People who take the Sinovac vaccine are more likely to require intensive care and supplemental oxygen and are ultimately more likely to die from Covid-19.
The study was carried out between 1 October to 21 November and involved more than 1.25 million people above the age of 40 – 73.7% of the subjects took the Pfizer vaccine, 23.9% took the Moderna vaccine while 2.4% took Sinovac.
The study primarily focused on the Delta variant and took age, gender, race, housing types and etc into account, as well as the daily differences in the rate of infection.
The authorities have suggested those who have taken two doses of the Sinovac vaccine, to get a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine as their third dose.