SINGAPORE, Feb. 17 (CNA) - The first shipment of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Singapore on Wednesday (Feb 17).

The vaccines were carried on board Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ7137, a scheduled freighter service from Brussels, Belgium, and arrived in Singapore at about 1.40pm.

The Health Sciences Authority announced on Feb 3 that it has granted interim authorisation for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Singapore for people aged 18 years and above.

"The vaccines were prioritised for loading into the aircraft in Brussels and was given precedence during unloading in Singapore. They were then transported to SATS's cold-chain facility, Coolport, for subsequent storage and ground transportation," SIA said on Wednesday.

SIA delivered the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to Singapore on Dec 21 last year.