Ukraine will receive the vaccine produced by the Sinovac Biotech Chinese company within 30 days after registration, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
“Due to the supply of the vaccine from Sinovac Biotech, we will receive 1.913 million doses of vaccine against coronavirus disease. During the first delivery, some 700,000 doses will arrive in Ukraine, we will receive them within 30 days after the vaccine is registered either in the manufacturing country or in other countries (the United States, UK, EU, Brazil, etc.),” he said.
“The company is to release the results of clinical trials in Brazil on January 7. It is stipulated that the vaccine must have an efficiency of at least 70%. Negotiations with the manufacturer have lasted since September 2020. The agreement was signed by the Lekhim Ukrainian pharmaceutical company,” the minister said.
According to Stepanov, the third phase of clinical trials was done in Brazil (13,060 patients), Indonesia (1,600 patients) and Turkey (1,325 patients). The efficiency in Indonesia was 97%, in Turkey it was 91%. The FDA recommends that COVID-19 vaccines should be more than 50% effective.
The minister said that all vaccines purchased for government funds will be free for all citizens of Ukraine.
In addition, the head of the Health Ministry said that the department is at the final stage of signing contracts with other vaccine manufacturing companies, and also intends to increase the number of vaccines that will be supplied to Ukraine as part of the COVAX initiative.
Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has held talks with Executive Director for International and Government Affairs of AstraZeneca Alec van Gelder on the timing and logistics of deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine.
“For several months, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has been establishing active and effective communication with the head office of AstraZeneca. Today we have already discussed the logistics and delivery terms of vaccines against COVID-19 from AstraZeneca in Ukraine. Our state is completely ready to receive vaccines. A plan for vaccination of the population has been fully developed,” Stepanov said, the press service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine reported on Facebook.
Alec van Gelder, in turn, noted readiness for active cooperation with Ukraine.
“We thank the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for consistency and openness. Now we will process options for the supply of vaccines in Ukraine in the near future,” he summed up.
It is noted that on December 30, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use in the UK, vaccination will begin on Monday.
As reported, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine signed a contract for the supply of vaccines against COVID-19 produced by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech to Ukraine.
The owners of the Capital Times investment company with offices in Ukraine and Belarus, Sergey Goncharevich and Eric Nayman, divided their business into B2B and B2C, keeping the Capital Times brand for Goncharevich’s B2B, Nayman said.
“My longtime partner Sergey Goncharevich and I decided to split Capital Times into two parts. (…) The combination of two completely different business models under one Capital Times brand no longer made economic sense. The Capital Times brand remained with my previous partner Sergey Goncharevich,” he wrote in his YouTube address.
Nayman indicated that he would be engaged in wealth management and B2C in general under the Hugs brand.
According to him, Goncharevich, in turn, will continue to work in the direction of B2B and in the field of corporate finance, he will help companies in finding financial resources, and owners – to buy or sell a business.
Capital Times was founded in 2006 and specializes in investment consulting and wealth management. The main offices of the company are located in Kyiv and Minsk. The managing partners of the company are Erik Nayman, a member of the Council for Economic Development under the government of Ukraine, and Sergey Goncharevich.
HUG’s company specializes in investment consulting. It has over 300 active accounts with Interactive Brockers, over UAH 400 million under management and conducts over 150 transactions daily.
Head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia predicts that in February the Verkhovna Rada will be able to adopt draft law No. 3613 on democracy through a referendum at the second reading.
“We wanted to vote on the draft law on the referendum in December, but since there are 2,000 amendments, we need to work with their authors so that they either withdraw them or not insist on their consideration too much, that is, do not block the adoption of the law. Since it could be voted on in December according to the level of preparedness. I think we will accept it in February,” the politician told Interfax-Ukraine.
After this law, according to him, there will be more initiatives on electronic referendum, about local referendums, as well as the entire package of bills on democracy.
Arakhamia also believes that the Rada needs to develop an electronic voting model by the end of 2021, at least at the local level.
British-based Ferrexpo Plc, which in Ukraine, in particular, controls Poltava and Yeristovo ore mining and processing plants (Poltava GOK and Yeristovo GOK), in January-November of this year, according to recent data, increased the total production of pellets by 5% compared to the same the period of 2019, to 10.16 million tonnes.
A representative of the company informed Interfax-Ukraine that during this period the output of concentrate increased by 4.8%, to 12.7 million tonnes.
In November, the company produced 980,000 tonnes of pellets and 1.2 million tonnes of concentrate.
According to the company, Ferrexpo in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 increased its total pellet production by 7.4%, to 2.725 million tonnes. In particular, the production of pellets with a 65% iron content was 2.652 million tonnes (an increase of 9.1%), with a 62% iron content some 73,330 tonnes (a decrease of 31.8%).
In the second quarter of this year, Ferrexpo increased its pellet production by 5.4% from the previous quarter, to 2.873 million tonnes, in particular it produced 2.848 million tonnes of pellets with a 65% iron content (an increase of 7.4%), 24,700 tonnes with a 62% iron content (a decrease of 66.3%).
In the third quarter of 2020, total pellet production decreased by 12% compared to the second quarter, to 2.537 million tonnes from 2.873 million tonnes, while no pellets with a 62% iron were produced.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of shares in Poltava GOK, 100% in Yeristovo GOK and 99.9% in Belanovo GOK.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that in 2021, on the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, within the framework of the Big Construction program, it is planned to open the longest highway in the country – M-30 – from Stry in Lviv region to Izvaryne in Luhansk region.
“Our whole philosophy is aimed at uniting Ukraine, and this is what the infrastructure is about. We want to unite the west and the east with one large high-speed highway which is called M-30. This will be the longest road in Ukraine – 1,400 kilometers. It will go from Stry, but so far only to reach Pokrovsk, because 200 kilometers of this road is in the temporarily occupied part of Luhansk region,” Zelensky said during a working trip to Zaporizhia.
Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said that part of the route was restored in 2020, the rest will be restored next year. According to him, even without taking into account 200 km in the temporarily occupied territory, this route is still the longest in Ukraine.
