The role of vaccines in COVID-19 control strategies in Singapore and China

ObjectivesIn this article, we critically review the development and implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in Singapore and China during the pandemic.MethodsWe collect and analyze data from a range of sources, including scholarly articles, statistics and documents from national governments in the two countries, and reports from international organizations.ResultsThere are important differences in the two countries’ approaches to the evolving pandemic, and thus the roles that COVID-19 vaccination plays in the overall response strategies in these two countries.ConclusionsWhereas Singapore adopted a “living with the virus” strategy, China continued to pursue a COVID-zero strategy. The overall COVID-19 response strategy of Singapore was largely shared by many countries in the world, while that of China was more unique and hardly imitated elsewhere. Nevertheless, vaccination played a significant role in both countries’ responses to the pandemic. A comparison and contrast between the vaccination processes in these two countries thus shed important light on the drivers and outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination in different settings.