First batch of Pfizer vaccine arrives in Ukraine (Photo)

The first batch of 117,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Ukraine as part of the COVAX Facility.

At 10:14 Kyiv time on April 16, the plane with the vaccine freight, which departed from Warsaw, Poland, landed at Kyiv Sikorsky Airport (Zhuliany), an UNIAN correspondent reported.

Read alsoUkraine may receive 5 mln doses of Hayat-Vax vaccine from UAEThe vaccine was developed by the German biotechnology company BioNTech in cooperation with the U.S. pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine called Comirnaty was approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use. The vaccine is administered intramuscularly. People should get two doses of the vaccine with an interval of three weeks to be fully vaccinated.

Vaccination in Ukraine: In brief

• On March 31, 2021, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister Viktor Liashko said Ukraine would receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the near future and they would be used for vaccinating residents and staff of boarding institutions and nursing homes.
• Some additional 947,700 doses of the vaccine would be delivered by late June.
• On April 6, Ukraine sealed an agreement with the American pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer for the supply of 10 million doses of their vaccine for COVID-19.

***COVAX is a global initiative aimed at accelerating the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines and providing to low- and middle-income countries. COVAX supplies only those vaccines that have been included by the WHO in the emergency drug registry.