The Ministry of Health has come out to clear the mist surrounding pregnant women and lactating mothers in relation to the Covid-19 vaccine.
From the outset, the Ministry strongly discouraged pregnant women and lactating mothers to stay away from the vaccine.
The story is different now as pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers are free to go and get the vaccine to prevent themselves from the pandemic.
Public Relations Officer in the ministry, Adrian Chikumbe, confirmed issuing a statement allowing pregnant women to access the vaccine.
“It’s true that we have issued a statement that all pregnant women can now also get the Covid-19 vaccine. We have expert advice that there is no harm. At first the tests did not include pregnant mothers and so we did not want to take any risks on the unborn child.
“Now we have expert advice that these women can still get the vaccine without any risk to the unborn child. Let me also add that we are also adding lactating mothers who were earlier excluded,” explained Chikumbe.
Chikumbe added that the vaccination programme was so far going on well as both AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines were being administered.
The Ministry says it will keep on engaging journalists, traditional leaders, religious leaders and other stakeholders on the importance of getting vaccinated against Coronavirus.
The target by most African countries is to have 60% of their populations fully vaccinated by the end of 2022.