News about a novel disease resembling SARS-2003 reached Singapore on the last day of 2019. It was beyond a doubt that Singapore would be affected. Indeed, the first case was detected on 23 January 2020, four months after the official opening of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). A Multi-Ministry Task Force and a research workgroup were set up one day ahead of the arrival of the first confirmed case. These provided scientific basis supporting policy-making on prevention and management strategies. The initial containment strategy significantly stemmed down the number of cases from the ancestral strain, and vaccine as a key counter-measure against the subsequent waves of variants of concern, namely alpha, beta, delta and omicron became available in December 2020. Today, Singapore is among the highest vaccinated countries in the world with more than 90 per cent of the entire population having received two doses (primary series) and close to 75 per cent having had their third dose (booster). Vaccination maintains low case fatality rate despite an aging population.