Health Minister Senate Lizzie Nkosi says the COVID-19 vaccines were developed using science that has been around for decades and are not experimental.

The Minister said during a press briefing that was held on Thursday where she also revealed plans for vaccinating pupils in schools. The Senate announced that the Health Ministry will soon deploy teams to vaccinate pupils in schools adding that out-of-school youth will also benefit under this program.

Nkosi assured the public of the safety of the vaccines pointing out that they are not experimental and were developed through science that has been around for decades.

The Kingdom of Eswatini is currently on a vaccine rollout exercise using vaccines that were donated by the COVAX facility and the manufactures of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine.

Nkosi said the vaccines went through all the required stages of clinical trials and extensive testing adding that monitoring proved that the vaccines are effective.

She said the vaccines have received and still continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring across the globe.

“COVID 19-vaccines are effective and can keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19. People with pre-existing illness stand to benefit immensely from COVID-19 vaccination since they tend to get severe COVID-19 disease and end up dying from complications, “added the Health Minister.

“Get vaccinated regardless of whether you already had COVID-19. Evidence is emerging that people get better protection by being fully vaccinated compared with having had COVID-19. One study showed that unvaccinated people who already had COVID-19 are more than two times likely than fully vaccinated people to get COVID-19 again. COVID-19 is therefore still a threat to people who are unvaccinated,” said Nkosi.

Nkosi expressed that some unvaccinated people who get COVID-19 can become severely ill which could result in hospitalization, putting pressure on the health system. This can lead to inadequate resources to match the demand for care thus worsening the clinical outcomes.