COVID-19: Pregnant women can now take vaccines – GHS

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says it is now safe for pregnant women to take COVID-19 vaccines, specifically the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Director-General of the Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye disclosed this while addressing the media at a press briefing on Wednesday.

He said, the announcement follows the completion of intensive studies and tests done in consultation with the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.

“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.”

Since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, pregnant women have been excluded from receiving any jabs as there was not information to guarantee their safety.

“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.

Ghana has so far administered a total of 9,499,019 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of January 19, 2022.