Ukraine expects to start receiving Indian vaccines against COVID-19 in early April, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“We see that there is a corresponding problem, and we are monitoring the political processes that are taking place in India, that they have withheld vaccines for everyone, without exception. But I think that this delay will not last too long. I think that nevertheless, somewhere in early April, we must obtain permission and start receiving vaccines from India. I am optimistic about this,” Stepanov said on the air of Right to Power (Pravo na Vladu) program on the 1 + 1 TV channel on Thursday evening, March 25.
During the year of quarantine associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic from the beginning of 2020 to the beginning of 2021, the Ukrainian audience of social networks expanded by 7 million people, GlobalLogic said, citing the results of a study conducted on the basis of open data.
“At the beginning of 2020, there were 19 million users [of social networks] in Ukraine. In 2021, the figure reached 26 million. At the same time, the penetration of social networks has increased by half: now 60% of the country’s population is registered in them, while in January 2020 it was only over 40%,” GlobalLogic said in a report on Wednesday.
According to GlobalLogic, since 2019, the number of Ukrainians on Instagram has increased by 22% and on Facebook by 7%. Now they are used by 14 million and 16 million Ukrainians, respectively.
“Over the past year, the new social network TikTok reached 16% of users from Ukraine. Its growth was 500%. YouTube remains the most popular social network with coverage of 96% of users in Ukraine. On average, they spend about 40 minutes a day in the service,” GlobalLogic.
The number of Ukrainian Internet users, according to the company, also increased by 2 million, which is 33% more than in 2019, and at the beginning of 2021 was almost 30 million, that is, about 67% of the country’s population.
According to GlobalLogic, there are more Internet users not only in Ukraine, but also in the world: since 2019, their number has increased by 280 million.
In addition, due to the pandemic over the past year, people around the world have seen 57% more videos and movies, 37% more music and 15% more podcasts.
GlobalLogic used data from open sources such as Data Report, State Statistics Service, Kantar and PlusOne, as well as internal statistics, for its analysis.
More than 50% of Ukrainians do not intend to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to results of a study conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from March 5 to 9.
According to the results of the poll, 51.5% of respondents answered that they do not intend to get vaccinated against coronavirus, 12% intend to get vaccine in the near future (or have already received such a vaccine), 16% intend to do it, but later, 10% intend to do it only when it will be necessary for formal requirements (for example, for a trip abroad), 10% have not decided yet.
At the same time, according to the research, the older the respondents, the more often they express a lack of desire to be vaccinated (their share increases from 43.5% among those who are from 18 to 29 years old, to 57% among those who are 60 and over).
Among those who do not give up their intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19, 52% are ready to be vaccinated only in case that vaccination is free, 22.5% of them are willing to pay for it, and another 5% are willing to pay to get vaccinated out of turn (21% were undecided).
The older the respondents, the more often they answer that they are ready to be vaccinated only free of charge (the proportion of such increases from 42% among those who are 18 to 29 years old, to 64% among those who are 60 and over).
Those respondents who do not intend to be vaccinated are most often motivated by the fact that, in their opinion, the vaccines used in Ukraine are not sufficiently effective or safe, but they are ready to be vaccinated with “some other” vaccine (this answer is given by 45% of those who do not intend to vaccinate).
So, 27% of them motivate their refusal by the fact that, in their opinion, the risks from vaccination exceed the risks from the disease itself, 10% by the fact that they have already had coronavirus, 7% have medical contraindications, 3% believe that the probability that that they will get COVID-19, is very low.
Justification of refusal to vaccinate with insufficient effectiveness or insufficient safety of vaccines used in Ukraine is most common among representatives of the younger age group (18-29 years old) (54% of those, who do not intend to vaccinate against COVID-19, motivate their refusal by this).
The survey was conducted by the method of face-to-face interviews at the place of residence of the respondents. 2,018 respondents aged 18 and over were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to a sample representing the adult population in terms of basic socio-demographic indicators.
The theoretical sampling error (excluding the design effect) does not exceed 2.3% with a probability of 0.95.
All family doctors will be vaccinated against COVID-19 through vaccination rooms, which will open from next week, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“Next week we will open vaccination rooms. All family doctors will be vaccinated against COVID-19 through these rooms,” he said on the Freedom of Speech (Svoboda Slova) program on ICTV on Tuesday night.
According to the national vaccination plan, at least nine mobile vaccination teams per region should work now, but these plans are not being implemented in the field, Stepanov said.
“Local authorities were supposed to reach not 10,000, but more than 12,000-14,000 vaccinations per day. The mobile team did not come here, they did not vaccinate there – this is how they deploy in the field,” he said.
Nevertheless, Stepanov said that in the coming days the rate of vaccination will accelerate and will reach more than 10,000 vaccinations per day.
“Today there was a rather tough conversation, including with some heads of regions,” he said.
Stepanov also said that 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine should be delivered to Ukraine by March 31. The Ministry of Health expects permission for their export from the Government of India.
As reported, the first batch of 500,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine was delivered to Ukraine on the morning of February 23.
Oxford/AstraZeneca is produced at the facilities of the Serum Institute (India) and has the local (trade) name Covishield. It was registered for emergency use in Ukraine on Monday, February 22.
In addition, Ukraine received confirmation of deliveries of 2.2-3.7 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines under COVAX mechanism in the first-second quarter of 2021. In addition, this vaccine will be purchased directly from the manufacturers for public funds.
Ukraine has also signed additional direct contracts for the supply of vaccines against COVID-19, developed with the participation of AstraZeneca (UK-Sweden) and NovaVax (USA) and manufactured at the facilities of the Serum Institute (India).
In February 2021, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) considered about 15,000 passenger requests for refunds for canceled flights in connection with COVID-19 and issued a refund in the amount of $2.5 million, the press service of the company said on Wednesday.
It is noted that in just 11 months during the pandemic from April 2020 to February 2021 inclusively, UIA returned more than $29 million to passengers.
In addition, the airline reminds that passengers of canceled flights also have options to choose from: free ticket reissuance; a promotional code for the amount of the cost of an unused ticket, valid for two years from the date of its issue.
“UIA once again emphasizes its readiness for dialogue with its passengers and sincerely hopes for understanding. The airline is doing everything possible to process every request as soon as possible,” the message says.
The Ministry of Health on Tuesday will hold a conference call with the regions to increase the speed of vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 19,118 people have been inoculated. I am not satisfied with these numbers, I set a different task for the speed of vaccination. By the end of the previous week, we had to reach 10,000 people per day and increase this number. We reached a little more than 2,000-3,000 vaccinations per day. Today we will hold an appropriate conference call, which will be attended by the heads of the Regional State Administrations, the leadership of the President’s Office, and directorates of health departments that coordinate vaccinations locally,” he said.
In addition, the minister noted that 185 cases of side effects from vaccination were recorded in Ukraine.
“As of today, out of almost 20,000 vaccinations, only 185 reports of side effects from immunization have been recorded. No serious side effects from vaccination have been recorded in Ukraine. Only one case required medical supervision, when a person had a fever for two days after vaccination,” he said.
Stepanov also said that as of March 9, some 190,230 people had already signed up for the vaccination waiting list.
