Kuwait's fatwa council says Covid-19 vaccine 'does not break Ramadan fast'

Kuwait's Dar Al-Iftaa announced on Tuesday that Muslims were permitted to take the vaccine when they fast.

It comes after the country's health ministry said there could be resistance to the inoculation drive during Ramadan, when many Muslims fast during daylight hours.

"An injection, including the vaccine against Covid-19, does not break one's fast if it is intramuscular", the ruling stated.

Kuwait's health ministry shared the fatwa ruling on Twitter, in a bid to encourage more Kuwaitis to take the jab during the holy month.

"There is nothing wrong with taking it during the day in Ramadan," the ministry tweeted.

"If the patient gets too tired of fasting as a result of the injection, it is advisable to break one's fast to ward off harm, on his behalf, and reduce pain it is permissible for them to break their fast."

Kuwait became the fourth Gulf state - after Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE - to issue such a fatwa.

Muslims across the world will observe their second Ramadan - a holy month when able-bodied believers abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset - under the coronavirus pandemic in April.

The Gulf countries were among the first Arab countries to receive the vaccine.

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