Singapore has approved Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for pandemic use and expects delivery of the first shots by the end of December, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

The city-state of 5.7 million expects to have enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of 2021, Lee added, and will make it free for all Singaporeans and long-term residents.

Lee said he and other government officials would be among the early recipients, after healthcare workers, frontline workers, the elderly and the vulnerable.

The prime minister also said that Singapore will progress to the third and final phase of its national Covid-19 response strategy on Dec 28, easing restrictions in the city-state of 5.7 million people where most days there are zero cases of local transmission.

Singapore will increase the maximum size of gatherings outside homes from five people to eight, and will ease capacity limits in public places like malls, attractions and at places of worship, he said.

“Please understand that even as we enter Phase three, the battle is far from won,” the prime minister said during a national address. “The Covid-19 virus has not been eradicated.”