(SINGAPORE): Seniors 70 years old and above will receive COVID-19 vaccination letters over the next three weeks, while inoculation for those aged between 60 and 69 will start around end-March, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (Feb 19).

"Beyond the 60 to 69 (age group), then we will probably open up to more groups, and the general public will then be able to get the vaccination, probably sometime after April," said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong during a visit on Friday to a vaccination centre at Jalan Besar Community Centre.

It was announced previously that COVID-19 vaccination for seniors in the community will begin islandwide from Monday, following pilots conducted in Tanjong Pagar and Ang Mo Kio.

More than 5,000 seniors from the two towns have received their vaccinations as of Feb 18.

Singapore began its COVID-19 vaccination exercise on Dec 30, with healthcare workers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases the first to get the shots.

As of Thursday, about 250,000 people in Singapore have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, said MOH in a press release. Of those, 110,000 have received the second dose and completed the full vaccination regimen, it said.

By early April, Singapore expects to distribute the first dose of vaccines to another 1 million people, said co-chair of the COVID-19 ministerial task force Lawrence Wong, who was at the vaccination centre with Mr Gan.

This will take the total number of people in Singapore vaccinated against COVID-19 to about 1.25 million people.