Ukraine bans use of Russian vaccine against COVID-19

The Ukrainian government has banned the use of a Russian-developed vaccine against COVID-19.

This is stipulated in a government resolution, dated February 8, 2021, which was posted on the governmental portal.

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The document states that vaccines or other medical immunobiological preparations for specific measures to prevent COVID-19 under the obligation for emergency medical use, development and/or production of which was carried out in Russia are not allowed to be used in Ukraine.

The supply and testing of vaccines against coronavirus are governed by agreements signed by Ukraine under the COVAX Facility.

The assessment of risks, registration materials for the authenticity of COVID-19 vaccines shall be supervised by the State Expert Center under the Health Ministry of Ukraine.

COVID-19 vaccine for Ukraine

• Ukraine plans to launch a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the middle of February 2021. The first stage is expected to take about 20 days when healthcare workers who have contacts with COVID-19 patients will get vaccinated.
• On December 30, 2020, Ukraine signed a contract for the supply of 1.9 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine.
• On January 30, 2021, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko said Ukraine would receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine within the COVAX (the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility) in February.
• From the middle of February to the end of June 2021, Ukraine will obtain 2.2 million to 3.7 million doses of an AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.
• On February 5, Health Minister Stepanov said shipments of 12 million doses of vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Novavax to Ukraine had been confirmed.
• In December 2020, the Health Ministry's coronavirus task force approved a COVID-19 immunization plan under which at least 50% of Ukrainians (20 million people) are to be vaccinated during 2021-2022.