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Do our laws permit compulsory COVID-19 vaccination?
I was not vaccinated and did not have a card and when I informed the officer that I did not have the card, he refused me entry and told me I would not be permitted into any state ministries until I was vaccinated.
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About the same time, a guest of my company arrived at the Kotoka International Airport from Europe and was not permitted to enter the country until he was vaccinated at the Airport. Lawyer, is this not a form of compulsory vaccination? Does the law permit this?
Prophet Tettey Tetteh, Tema.
Dear Prophet,
Different countries have different laws regulating the vaccination of its citizens and other nationals who visit for business and tourism.
Some of the laws are permissive and leave the destiny of the people in their own hands. Other countries have laws which authorise the government to take stricter measures to ensure that epidemics are controlled and do not spread within the community.
The emergence of COVID-19 is not the first time the world has been plagued with a pandemic. Arising from these contagious diseases,
Ghana has had laws passed to protect the populace from such epidemics and pandemics.
In 1919, Ghana, then the Gold Coast, passed the Vaccination Act, 1919 Cap. 76. Section 3 of that act provided for compulsory vaccination for smallpox. It gave the minister for health power to issue executive instrument for the vaccination of all persons in particular areas or districts or arriving in the Republic by land or sea against smallpox.
This act was repealed in 2012 and replaced by the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851). Section 21 of the act made provision for a public vaccinator who shall vaccinate, free of charge, persons who present themselves or are presented for the purpose, or persons who are or become liable to be vaccinated except where vaccination would be injurious to health, or where there is satisfactory evidence that a person is already successfully vaccinated or otherwise has natural immunity to the disease.
The act also makes provision for compulsory vaccination. The minister for health may by executive instrument order a group or class of persons in a particular district or place to appear for examination and to be vaccinated or re-vaccinated by a public vaccinator, unless in the opinion of the public vaccinator the vaccination would be injurious to health.
The penalty for failure to comply with the legislative instrument or a person who obstructs a public vaccinator in the performance of his functions, is summary conviction to a fine of not more than fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than three months or to both.
As you are aware, the world was inflicted with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The minister for health, having recognised the threat of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to life and health and its potential to escalate and cause danger to the life and health of people living in Ghana, initiated the processes for Parliament to pass the Imposition of Restriction Act, 2020 (Act 1012).
This act also gave powers to the President and the Minister for Health to issue directions and orders geared towards the general public interest including the compulsory vaccination.