Ukraine will receive up to 8 million doses of COVID vaccine from the EU – Deputy Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna wrote it in an article for ZN.UA.

She noted that the coronavirus pandemic not only significantly affected the preparation and holding of the 22nd EU-Ukraine Summit, but also became the first issue discussed, as everyone knows that ensuring rapid access to the vaccine is an important international task. In this context, Stefanishyna reminded that on August 31, the European Union allocated 400 million euros to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX), which will purchase up to 2 billion doses of vaccine by the end of 2021.

"Ukraine has been selected from the list of participants in this initiative, so it can receive up to 8 million doses of the vaccine.

We are ready to contribute to the fight against coronavirus. We have a suitable infrastructure, enterprises for producing vaccines, and we are ready to take part in their mass production together with other EU countries," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Stefanishyna noted that, as the pandemic has shown, besides responding to large-scale challenges, we should pay attention to systematic work to build a common sustainability system, in particular in the health care field, both at the national and interstate levels.

"We are grateful that the European Union has been and remains our reliable partner in implementing medical reform and capacity development of Ukrainian state institutions. In turn, we will continue to build cooperation between our institutions and European ones, especially with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC)," she promised.