The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced that it is now safe for pregnant women to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. This follows the completion of the service’s intensive studies and tests done in consultation with the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.
Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye while addressing the media at a press briefing, disclosed that Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been approved for administration to pregnant women.
“Pregnant women who are unvaccinated can now be vaccinated. Previously, it was not possible for them to be vaccinated, but now can be vaccinated, and they are recommending that we use Pfizer or Moderna to vaccinate them.”
Following the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination exercise in the country, the health management body excluded pregnant women from receiving the jabs.
It said it was still gathering information on the safety of the vaccines on such persons.
But at the media engagement, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye mentioned that it is now effective and safe for the vaccines to be administered to pregnant women, given local and global evidence.
“We’ve done quite a lot of work. As Ghana Health Service and all the other agencies who’re working with us, we’re all concerned about pregnant women, and that’s why we didn’t add them in the first place, in the first year of implementation. But now that we have enough evidence both international and local, we are now able to add pregnant women to it, because it’s effective and safe”, he stated.
So far, Ghana has administered a total of 9,499,019 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of January 19, 2022. Out of this number, 6,951,968 have received at least one dose of the jab, with the remaining 3,229,995 being fully vaccinated.
The Ghana Health Service is also planning to announce a guide for booster doses.
Ghana is currently experiencing the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, but the proportion of severe and critical cases is relatively low. All regions currently have active cases. The country’s COVID-19 situation stands at 4,185 active cases and 1,364 total deaths.
Source: Eno S. Safo
