Health Minister announces start of mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Feb

Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has announced the launch of a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Ukraine in February 2021.

He made this announcement on TV Channel Ukraina 24.

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"We as the Health Ministry and I as minister fulfill all the undertaken obligations," he said.

"And if we said back in September that we would start the mass vaccination campaign in February this year, then we will start in February this year," he added.

Stepanov also elaborated on the number of people to get vaccinated.

"According to our national plan, we expect to provide 30 million citizens with free access to vaccines at different (five) stages of vaccination, depending on risk groups. These are our healthcare workers, risk groups by health, these are people by age. We plan to vaccinate all of them in during 2021 and the first quarter of 2022," the minister explained.

He also noted that "mass vaccination" means "free access to vaccines for all citizens of Ukraine."

COVID-19 vaccine for Ukraine

• In February-March 2021, Ukraine expects the delivery of a vaccine against COVID-19.
• The first batch of a vaccine via the COVAX Facility will include 8 million doses, which will be enough to vaccinate 4 million people (two shots per person required). First to get vaccinated will be healthcare workers, the elderly, and seriously ill patients.
• On December 24, 2020, Health Minister Stepanov said that his ministry was working out a plan to increase the COVAX vaccine quota from 8 million to 16 million doses.
• On December 30, Ukraine signed a contract with China's Sinovac for the supply of 1.9 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 170 experimental vaccines are currently at the stage of preclinical trials, 65 are undergoing clinical trials, of which 15 are at the third, last stage.