Singapore's Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan urged Singaporeans to get their H1N1 vaccines soon in case there is a rush for it later on, local media reported on Tuesday.

The health minister said in a blog posting that it is extremely difficult to gauge how many doses any country will need and how the pandemic will pan out, adding that if the pandemic turns out to be deadly and highly infectious, supply can never match demand and there might be a scramble by countries to get enough supplies, according to local TV broadcaster Channel News Asia.

The Singapore government has ordered 1.3 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine, of which 420,000 vaccine doses have been taken up.

There have been reports saying that Singapore's polyclinics and private clinics are seeing a low demand for the H1N1 vaccines for children, with an average of only two requests per day.

Singapore reported its first confirmed case of flu A/H1N1 on May 27. The flu has caused 19 deaths in the country.　

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2010)