By: Mariama Njie
World Health Organization, The Gambia office and Ministry of Health have reassured the general public over the safety of AstraZeneca COVAX vaccines for the Covid-19 as the country rolled out vaccination against coronavirus.
According to their instruction, after taking the vaccine such a person might feel normal temporal side effects like irritations, dizziness and fever.
Speaking at a press conference held shortly after the launching of the vaccination campaign, Dr. Amadou Lamin Samateh, Minister of Health the vaccines are safe and protective. He noted that the available vaccines will cover up to 60% of the population targeting health workers, frontline workers and age group of 65 and above for now.
He, therefore, urged the public to take the doses, while assuring people “with these vaccines God willing people that have severe sickness from COVID-19 will go down and probably even the transmissibility will also reduce.”
Dr. Samateh disclosed that the heart-humidity will be established when adequate numbers of people are vaccinated. This means the virus will not have a stronghold in the community, as “there is a rollout plan coordinated by regional directors, public health teams so that they can all come together for the vaccination.”
The EPI team, he said, has been working very hard and they are well experienced from various vaccination campaigns, so COVID-19 is not unique to them.
“They also have a cold storage room in Kotu, a cold storage van that will transfer vaccines to wherever they are supposed to go and new refrigerators,” he added.
Dr Desta Tiruneh, WHO Country Representative in The Gambia, said “the first targeted group to be vaccinated are the health workers as they deal with sick people, and the second group will be people of 65-year-old and above because they are likely to develop severe symptoms and people with cancer, hypertension.”
Dr Tiruneh said further that the vaccine is safe as it has undergone various processes to ensure its safety and protect the people that are vaccinated, “as any other vaccine, COVAX vaccine might have side effects like irritations, fever and some dizziness. Those are common side effects.”
“So, the message to people is that the vaccine is safe, if you are offer please don’t decline because it’s lifetime opportunity,” he said.
