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

“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”.

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

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”.