Ukraine begins COVID-19 vaccination next week
Ukraine will begin the COVID-19 vaccination next week.
Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov stated this at a briefing.
"We plan to start vaccination next week," Stepanov said.
He reminded that the plans of the Ministry of Health to start vaccination in February-March 2021 had been announced in September last year. A national vaccination plan was developed and approved, with the participation of international experts and WHO.
According to the Minister, at the first stage, people from risk groups will be vaccinated based on occupational or medical indicators, i.e. they have concomitant diseases or people over 60 years of age.
Stepanov reminded UAH 3.9 billion was provided for vaccination in the 2021 state budget. Vaccines will be supplied to Ukraine in several ways. Thus, within the global COVAX initiative, Ukraine will receive 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The first tranche is 117 thousand doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Ukraine should receive it in the coming days.
Ukraine has also signed a contract with the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech for the supply of 1.9 million doses of the vaccine. The authorized representative of Sinovac Biotech in Ukraine is JSC Lekhim.
Besides, we have signed contracts for the supply of 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca (UK and Oxford University) and NovaVax (USA) to Ukraine, under license agreements at the Serum Institute (India). Vaccines will be supplied through a contract between the Serum Institute and Crown Agents, designated by the Government of Ukraine to purchase a coronavirus vaccine.
