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Member of Parliament(MP) for Kwadaso in Ashanti Region, Kingsley Nyarko, has rebuked those criticizing the Ghana Health Service (GHS) new directive regarding the Coronavirus pandemic.

Amidst fears of the new Coronavirus variant, Omicron, the Ghana Health Service has reviewed the safety protocols against the disease to include all unvaccinated Ghanaians and 18 year old persons or above entering Ghana from abroad to be fully vaccinated on arrival or provide proof of vaccination.

This directive is to guard the nation against the spread of the disease, particularly during the festive season.

The GHS is tightening measures to prevent the rise of COVID-19 cases as Ghanaians celebrate the Christmas and New Year festivities.

However, the Ghana Health Service's announcement has been met with mixed feelings as some critics raise human right infringement issues.

NDC Communication Officer, Sam Gyamfi, in a Facebook post, argued that "vaccination must be by choice and not by force. The imposition of compulsory COVID vaccination requirement on all Ghanaians traveling into and out of Ghana by the Ghana Health Service is reprehensible and an affront to the 1992 Constitution. And some of us are determined to fight this madness through every available legal means no matter the cost or stigma".

Also the Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea says it should be one's choice to vaccinate, hence forcing the citizens to receive the vaccine jab could have legal ramifications.

"That new order that you will be forced to vaccinate, if care is not taken, could be tested in the Supreme Court. When we say if you don't have it (vaccinated card), you won't be permitted to enter Ghana, then the choice is still yours but the way the information came that if you don't have it, you will be vaccinated at the airport becomes a force. The option should be you will not be allowed to enter," he said during Tuesday's "Kokrokoo" on Peace FM.

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme Wednesday morning, Kingsley Nyarko expressed dissenting views to the shared opinions of making the vaccination a choice not compulsion.

According to him, the vaccination is to protect all the citizens against the pandemic disease, so nobody should exempt himself or herself by choosing between being vaccinated or unvaccinated.

"Those saying it's a choice and so forth should be very careful because when it gets to certain times in our lives that we say it's extraordinary times, we have to take extraordinary measures to protect us. So, if government is helping us, you must let people know it's not for bad but rather our own good. So, I support that," he said.

He added, "the money we need to get the number of vials to fight this pandemic, we don't even have it", therefore asking "why don't we protect ourselves than wait for it get out of control like it happened in India?"

He implored the citizenry to apply common sense rather than to go by their emotions and reject the vaccination.

"Sometimes, when it comes to common sense and law, we must choose common sense than law. When it reaches critical stages in our lives, common sense must be put to work than law because if common sense can protect you, I mean laws are supposed to be a bit flexible...I want them to make it mandatory so that it will help us to fight against the disease," he said.