With the highly transmissible BA.5 variant of COVID-19 being detected, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony is urging citizens to take the COVID jabs.
During his daily COVID-19 update on Friday, the minister urged persons to take their COVID-19 vaccine to avoid being infected with the new variant.
This would include persons who are due for second doses and booster shots.
“We have been experiencing a BA.5 wave for some time now and this is not new.
“We will continue to monitor… more than a month and a half now we have been talking about a resurgent of COVID-19 generally that is being caused by BA5, the variant that is circulating right now,” the Health Minister said.
He noted that reinfections by this variant have been seen in persons who were infected before.
“People have to take the precautions and if they want to stay protected they will get a booster dose,” the minister said.
He importantly stated that persons who were vaccinated more than six months ago would need to get a booster shot because the antibodies are reduced over time.
He also said that persons need to be considerate and take precautions to avoid getting vulnerable family members infected.
“It Is important if you have someone who is at home having difficulty moving around and so forth that not only is that person protected but we also get the members of the household to receive their vaccine so that we can help in many ways to protect that more vulnerable person in the household,” the minister said.
Further, Dr Anthony debunked the myth that pregnant women who get vaccinated against COVID-19 might not have a healthy pregnancy.
“These vaccines are safe and they are protected, if a pregnant woman got the vaccine in their last trimester, the antibodies that they would build up in their system will be passed on in the infant.”
“One way of protecting very small children, infants would be that the mother gets vaccinated so that those antibodies would pass through the breast milk to the child,” the minister said.
