United Nations:Ghana has termed as “unfortunate” the development in “some countries in Europe” of not recognising the Covishield vaccine manufactured in India for travellers, saying the use of vaccines as a tool for immigration control will be a “truly retrogressive step.”
On Wednesday, the UK government added Covishield, the India-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, to an updated international travel advisory.
Indian travellers vaccinated with two doses of Covishield will still have to undergo 10 days of quarantine in the UK even as the vaccine has been approved under the revised British guidelines for travel, according to UK officials.
They said the main issue is vaccine certification and not the Covishield vaccine and that both India and the UK are holding talks to mutually resolve the matter.
“One unfortunate development appears to be the recent measures on entry into some countries in Europe, which suggest that Covishield, the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India, is not recognised by these countries,” President of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in his address to the General Debate of the 76th session of UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
“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,” he said.
Ghana had received a total of 6.52 lakh doses of Made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines, including six lakh through COVAX and 50,000 doses through a grant.
Akufo-Addo said that the Africa Union is working with the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization and other global partners to expand its vaccine manufacturing and deployment.
Ghana has so far received five million doses, which have been administered to frontline health workers and those classified as being most at risk, he said.
“Five million is not a figure to be sneered at, particularly when we consider the situation in many other African countries. 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,” he said, adding that Ghana is still hoping to vaccinate 20 million of its people by the end of the year.