Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister and Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko says his ministry expects a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from AstraZeneca under the COVAX Facility on April 22.
He announced this on TV Channel 1+1.
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"In the coming days, as early as on April 22, we have scheduled the next flight and delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the [COVAX] global facility. These are 367,000 doses," he said.
The Health Ministry plans to use the received doses in 2-3 days to demonstrate the capabilities of the health care system.
"When I say that we are ready and able to administer minimum 90,000-100,000 [shots] a day – one cannot believe that because we are now administering 14,000-20,000. But I think we will prove it soon," he said.
According to him, the supply of the Covishield (AstraZeneca) vaccine from India has been suspended, as that country has temporarily banned exports of the vaccine from its territory.
"However, we expect that all the contractual obligations will be fulfilled in April-May and the vaccine will be supplied," he said.
According to him, 70% of the population in Ukraine, which is 24 million people, are expected to be vaccinated by the end of 2021.
"This is an ambitious plan; it can be fulfilled under a number of conditions. The first thing that should be is a vaccine on the territory of our state," he said.
Vaccination in Ukraine
- On February 24, 2021, a national vaccination campaign was launched in Ukraine.
- The following vaccines are now being used in Ukraine: Covishield (AstraZeneca), a recombinant vector vaccine produced under a license at the Serum Institute of India; CoronaVac, which was developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech; and Comirnaty by Pfizer/BioNTech.
- Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 462,791 people have been vaccinated.
- As many as 8,940 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Ukraine on April 19.
