Using COVID-19 vaccines to control immigration retrogressive - Akufo-Addo to UN

President Nana Akufo-Addo has told the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly that the use of COVID-19 vaccines as a tool for controlling immigration by some European countries is regrettable.

Delivering a message before the Assembly, he said the move was not the best.

“One unfortunate development appears to be the recent measures on entry into some countries in Europe, which suggests that Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India, is not recognised by these countries”, the Ghanaian leader told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, 22 September 2021.

“What is intriguing”, the Chairman of the Heads of Authority of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said, “is the fact that this vaccine was donated to African countries through the COVAX facility”.

His comments come on the heels of the “simplified travel measures” announcement by recently by the UK Government, and, indeed, by some countries in Europe, which comes into effect from 4th October.

The measures specify that persons who have received double-dose vaccines such as Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or the single shot Janssen vaccine “under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.

The rules also consider persons who have received jabs under public health bodies in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan as fully vaccinated.

“What is intriguing is the fact that this vaccine was donated to African countries through the COVAX facility. The use of vaccines as a tool for immigration control will be a truly retrogressive step,” the President noted.

Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said, has so far received five million doses, which have been administered to frontline health workers and those classified as being most at risk.

“The use of vaccines as a tool for immigration control will be a truly retrogressive step”, Nana Akufo-Addo added.

As far as the COVID-19 situation in his country is concerned, the Ghanaian leader said: “We, in Ghana, have, so far, received five million doses, which have been administered to frontline health workers and those classified as being most at risk”.

“Five million is not a figure to be sneered at, particularly when we consider the situation in many other African countries”, he noted.

“We are grateful that our efforts at the management of the pandemic and vaccine distribution have been recognised, and we have received these amounts so far. We are still hoping to vaccinate 20 million of our people by the end of the year”.