Health Minister Lizzie Nkosi has urged the nation to take the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine despite what is currently being said about it.

The Minister conveyed her message through a 2-minute long video that was posted on the government social media pages on Sartuday.

On Thursday, the Kingdom of Eswatini received 20 000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine which the Health Minister said will be administered to the country’s Health workers from this coming week.

However, a lot has been said about the Astrazeneca vaccine which includes a number of countries that had to delay rolling out this vaccine following reports of blood clots.

However, the European Union (EU) yesterday announced that there is currently no indication that the vaccine is linked to the increased risk of blood clots.

In her video, Nkosi also noted that there is a lot being said about the AstraZeneca vaccine but urged Emaswati to take it nonetheless. She said the vaccine will help prevent severe cases and the mortality rate among other things.

“Let us vaccinate to protect ourselves. There is a lot that has been said about the COVID-19 vaccine that recently arrived in the country, however; I would love the nation to remember how devastating the second wave has been to the country.

The vaccine that arrived or any other vaccine will prevent one from being too ill, hospitalized for a long time as well as reduce the number of people succumbing to the virus,” said the Health Minister.

She said what the government is sure of is that the AstraZeneca vaccine is that it will help in preventing the three aforementioned conditions.

The AstraZeneca vaccine made headlines in South Africa after data revealed that it only has 22% efficacy against the new COVID-19 variant currently dominating that country.

Notably, this is the same variant found locally as the Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku recently confirmed that 885 of the country’s cases are the South African variant.  

Nkosi revealed that the World Health Organization (WHO), Central Disease Control (CDC) continues to urge the Kingdom of Eswatini to use the AstraZeneca vaccine to prevent the severe cases, being hospitalized for a long time as well as reducing the COVID-19 mortality rate.

Meanwhile, Members of Parliament in the Kingdom of Eswatini called for the country not to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine without conducting tests locally.  

“The stories we have heard about AstraZeneca are too shocking and we need to do something about it. Let us not roll out the vaccine until we are sure it is the right vaccine for us,” said Mhlangatane MP Madala Mhlanga as quoted by Eswatini News.

Princess Phumelele reportedly challenged the Ministry of Health to provide the necessary information about the vaccine before administering it.