WHO assures Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 is safe to use in Malawi

Global health regulators, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made an emphatic assurance that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine that Malawi has  chosen is very safe for use.

Speaking in Lilongwe during the Covid-19 update briefing, WHO country representative, Nonhlanhla Rosemary Dlamini, said Malawi should not be worried with the study that was done in South Africa that saw the country putting on hold the vaccine.

South Africa has since abandoned the vaccine for Johnson, making the Rainbow nation to be the first to use in the world.

She said that the study in South Africa was done on young energetic people with very few people participating.

Dlamini said the study has not been done on old people and those with underlying health conditions, saying if the study involved such people the outcome could have been different.

She further said it is the old and people with health conditions that are filling the treatment centres.