Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony yesterday announced that the ministry is advising against taking the COVID-19 vaccine and filarial pills on the same day.
This announcement was made during yesterday’s COVID-19 update where he stated that while there is nothing that prevents persons from taking the COVID-19 vaccine if they have had the filarial pills, the ministry has developed a protocol to separate the two.
“Internally we have come up with a protocol… just to make sure that we are able to monitor people to see whether there is any side effects, [so] don’t take the two things on the same day,” he cautioned.
The minister went on to say that this protocol was developed out of an abundance of caution so as to be able to properly monitor the possible side effects that persons may have after taking the vaccine. Anthony added that the authorities have to ensure that there is enough time to monitor the patient and ensure there is no reaction.
“We want to have enough time to monitor you to make sure that there is no reaction and if there is a reaction that we can actually attribute that reaction to the vaccine that you have taken,”
Meanwhile, he mentioned that the rollout of the filaria campaign has been good as officials have been operating in regions Three and Four. As of Wednesday he noted that approximately 166,000 persons had received their filaria pills.
Further he disclosed that the ministry is expected to launch the campaign in regions Five and Six this weekend. “Our goal is to make sure we have 75 per cent of the population taking the medicine and if we are able to accomplish that in all the regions then we will be able to be declared by the WHO as being filaria free,” Dr Anthony stated.
