It is safe for pregnant women to take COVID-19 vaccines

Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services has stated that it is safe for pregnant women to receive COVID-19 vaccines without any health implications.

“At the beginning of the vaccination, we left out pregnant women but now evidence has shown that we can immunize pregnant women,” he told the media at a briefing to update the public on the COVID-19 situation in the Region.

He debunked perceptions that the vaccines could endanger the lives of pregnant women and their unborn babies, saying that scientific knowledge gathered since the outbreak of the pandemic did not support the claims.

“The pathophysiology of COVID-19 in pregnancy also mimics severe pre-eclampsia and that is one area where if you don’t manage very well mortalities are always very high so when you immunize pregnant women it would be of benefit to them,” he assured.

He said pregnant women had a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 and stressed the need to prioritise the immunization of pregnant women as a key strategy to reduce mortality.

“We are recommending Modena and Pfizer for pregnant women and the first dose would be given as early as possible in pregnancy and the second dose would follow that of the general population,” he stated.

The Regional Director said the Directorate was also going to give booster doses to the high risk population, adding that immunity for COVID-19 usually waned after six months.

He said all vaccines approved for use in Ghana could be used for a booster vaccination and that beneficiaries should have completed the primary vaccination between three to six months ago.

On the COVID-19 situation in the Region, Dr. Tinkorang disclosed that there were 22,273 cumulative cases, 21,823 recoveries, and 389 deaths.

He said the region currently had 61 active cases out of which 54 were receiving home based treatment with the remaining seven on admission at treatment centers.

The region, he noted, was seeking to vaccinate 3,835,045 people but had so far vaccinated 2,200,377 with 1,612,802 receiving at least one dose.

He said 637,628, representing 16.6 per cent of the targeted population, had been fully vaccinated and urged the public to visit vaccination centers for their jab.