Ukraine must carefully prepare a vaccination campaign against COVID-19, otherwise the vaccination mechanism will not stop the epidemic, said head of the KSE Center for Health Economics, ex-Deputy Minister of Health Pavlo Kovtoniuk.
“We believe that without an emergency and massive vaccination campaign, Ukraine will not be able to use the tool [vaccination] in such a way that it somehow has at least a little impact on the distribution pattern,” he said during the weekly online presentation of KSE on Thursday.
Kovtoniuk noted that according to the calculations of the KSE, even in the “ideal world” Ukraine will not be able to vaccinate risk groups. In particular, if you vaccinate the greatest risk group – people over 55 years old, who, according to statistics, most often get sick with COVID-19, it will be necessary to vaccinate 13.5 million people in Ukraine.
According to KSE calculations, for such a vaccination “in an ideal world, when everyone has the vaccine and everyone came to the vaccination rooms at the same time, and all 6,580 vaccination rooms will work eight hours without breaks and weekends, and all these people will receive two doses of the vaccine,” six months will be needed.
“Even in ideal conditions, when everything comes along, we will be able to vaccinate the category of older people in only six months. But we understand that people do not come to vaccination rooms in an organized manner, that vaccines will not be delivered in proportional way, that some of the vaccines will come on the initiative of COVAX, and some will have to be bought, and they will be delivered at different times. There will be many more factors that will slow down this process. And only 36% of the population will be able to get vaccinated. We are not talking about herd immunity,” said Kovtoniuk.
“If we simply give people the opportunity to vaccinate at will, the process will drag on for years and even then the main risk groups will not be vaccinated. And in fact we do not use this tool,” he stressed.
Kovtoniuk believes it is most likely that “we will live in one mode or another with COVID-19 throughout 2021.”
“Vaccination will be one of the ways to combat COVID-19, but it will not be a miracle weapon that will destroy COVID-19. Other methods of struggle will continue to work: this is a powerful testing system that needs to be built, it is also powerful, I would say the aggressive contact tracing system that needs to be built is quarantine restrictions, which will still be present,” he said.
Creditwest Bank (Kyiv) and the Export Credit Agency (ECA) have signed a cooperation agreement to stimulate the export of Ukrainian-made goods, the bank’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to the report, the agreement provides for Creditwest Bank’s participation in ECA’s Export Risks Insurance program, within which the agency undertakes insurance of risks under export contracts financed by the bank.
Through the appropriate program Ukrainian companies will be able to attract loans for the implementation of export contracts.
The bank said that the largest loan amount under the program is UAH 2.5 million. The loan term is up to one year. The amount of insurance compensation is set at 85% of the loan amount.
According to the report, the corresponding agreement provides for the use of accelerated procedures for considering applications from the bank by the Export Credit Agency.
The approximate ECA insurance rate will be 1.2% of the loan amount for loans for a period of up to six months, 1.6% – for a period of six to 12 months, depending on the coefficient of the buying country on the OECD scale.
CREDITWEST BANK, EXPORT, EXPORT CREDIT AGENCY, STIMULATE, UKRAINIAN GOODS
According to the preliminary results of the implementation of the state program of financial support for activities in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of loans in 2020, almost UAH 1.05 billion out of UAH 1.2 billion planned for 2020 was compensated to agrarians, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture said in a statement, published on its website on Tuesday.
“This year, under the program on reducing the cost of loans in the agricultural sector, UAH 24.8 billion were attracted. During the reporting period, more than 4,200 agricultural enterprises took advantage of the program. Due to this additional funding, they were able to update lines for the production and processing of agricultural products, build storages for vegetables, fruits and berries, and cover other production costs,” Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Ihor Petrashko said.
According to the ministry, the top five regions in terms of loan compensation included Odesa (UAH 91.6 million), Kharkiv (UAH 71 million), Ternopil (UAH 68.9 million), Vinnytsia (UAH 66.5 million) and Cherkasy (UAH 65.4 million).
The Economy Ministry said that in October this year, the parliament adopted in the second reading bill No. 3295, which allows farmers to receive partial compensation for loans raised to replenish working capital. In pursuance of this law, the Economy Ministry is preparing appropriate amendments in the procedure for the use of funds (resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 300).
As reported, under the budget program of financial support for agricultural producers in the direction of financial support for activities in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of loans in 2020, some UAH 1.2 billion are provided.
Of the total number of authorized banks that signed a memorandum on general principles of cooperation with the Economy Ministry (36 banks), some 33 banks participate in providing compensation for loans.
Foreign trade turnover by the most important positions in Jan-Aug 2020 (import).
Ukraine and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have launched a visa-free regime, Ukrainian Ambassador to Great Britain Vadym Prystaiko has said.
“Today with His Excellency, Mr. Cenio Lewis, High Commissioner of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the UK, we launched visa-free regime. Step-by- step and all the Commonwealth nations will become visa-free for Ukrainians,” Prystaiko wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The ambassador said that diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were established only in September 2019.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a state in the southern Caribbean, located on the large island of Saint Vincent and a chain of smaller islands.
Belarus has placed temporary restrictions on the importation of poultry from the Republic of Tatarstan; the regions of Rostov, Samara, and Tomsk, Russia; the areas of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony, Germany; Corsica, France; Central Jutland, Denmark; as well as the provinces of Groningen and Gelderland, the Netherlands, the Veterinary and Food Supervision Department of the Agriculture and Food Ministry of the Republic of Belarus said.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, cases of highly pathogenic influenza in birds have been reported in these areas, the Belarus department said on its website.
Consequently, as of November 23, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the importation of live poultry, hatching and edible eggs, poultry meat, egg powder, egg mixture, egg albumen and other processed food from chicken eggs, down and feathers, non-disinfected game bird trophies, feed and feed additives, as well as other products from the said regions to Belarus.
All previously issued permits to import the specified goods and products have also been suspended. Meantime, goods and products subject to veterinary oversight and supervision that are subject to the restrictions and which have originated from the said regions prior to November 22 of the current year inclusive follow as per the usual regime, the department added.
“Meanwhile, additional oversight measures must be taken in order to ensure the biological protection of poultry facilities of all types of ownership,” the department said in the statement.
