As the country prepares to roll out the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID -19 vaccine, the Ministry of Health came out to confirm the side effects that come with the COVID-19 vaccines.

In a short video clip that was posted on the Eswatini Government Social Media Pages, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr. Simon Zwane clarified that all the vaccines that were approved are safe to be administered to human beings and have proven to work very well and do what they are designed to do.

“However, this is not to mean that there are no side effects. Side effects will occur just like in any other drug or medicine that is administered to a human being. There are those unintended effects that will come up with that particular drug,” said Zwane.

Zwane said the common side effects that have been documented in other countries include soreness or pain where one was injected. He said this could last between one to two days. He said one may feel tiredness which is common with AstraZeneca. Lastly, Zwane revealed that one may feel like he or she is catching flu.

‘This is very important to know because when they happen, we have to report them, they have to be properly documented so that as we continu with the campaign we know what sort of side effects commonly affect our people and how to manage them,” narrated Zwane.

The Kingdom of Eswatini recently received two batches of Oxford AstraZeneca  amounting to 32 000 doses.

Receiving the first batch, Health Minister Lizzie Nkosi revealed that the vaccine rollout will kick off from this coming week with the health workers being first in line for the c=vaccine.