Only mild symptoms in vaccinated staff who catch Covid-19, says health minister

Health ministry employees who were infected with Covid-19 after having completed two doses of vaccine only experienced mild symptoms, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said today.

He said most of the health workers infected with Covid-19 were Category 1 and 2 patients, with no symptoms or only mild ones.

“Out of 243,309 ministry personnel who had completed their vaccinations, only 0.75% or 1,834 workers were infected with Covid-19.

“Of the infected number, only one was a Category 4 patient who required oxygen and two were in Category 3, while 1,219 were in Category 2 and 612 in Category 1,” he said at the weekly media conference on the development of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

Adham said while those who had been vaccinated could still be infected with the virus, the rate of infection and number of severe cases were very low.

“Most of those who were infected did not have symptoms or only showed mild symptoms. This can reduce the pressure on the health system especially in the ICU and the (need for) hospitalisation.

“This means that the vaccines we use do provide protection and the efficacy of the vaccines is reaching the desired level,” he added.