Ukraine is launching its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is starting today [on February 24]. The first vaccine [shipments] were sent to the regions at 7:00 a.m. I have set an objective to carry out the first stage of vaccination within a short period of time,” Stepanov said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Ukraine has enough vaccine doses for the first and second stages of the campaign, the minister said.
“We are expecting supplies through the COVAX initiative of more than 100,000 doses from the Pfizer company, around two million doses from Sinovac, 1.5 million doses from AstraZeneca, another four million doses or so from Serum Institute under COVAX, a contract for ten million doses from Novavax has already been signed, and we plan to sign a contract for another five million doses in the near future,” Stepanov said.
This amount of vaccine doses is more than enough for a full-fledged vaccination drive this year, he said.
“Apart from that, we are going to sign more contracts and already have relevant agreements,” Stepanov said.
Stepanov also said that he had visited the Bharat Biotech enterprise, which has developed a COVID-19 vaccine, during his visit to India.
“The vaccine has undergone the three phases of clinical trials, with the final stage involving more than 25,000 volunteers. The final results of the phase 3 trials are expected to become available within the next ten days. Scientists’ tentative conclusions are optimistic – the vaccine is effective and safe,” the minister said.
“During the negotiations with the company, we reached an agreement confirming the mutual readiness of the producer and Ukraine to take part in clinical trials of a new development, which is a vaccine in the form of nasal spray or drops. They are starting the phase 1 trials, while the phase 2 and phase 3 trials may be conducted partly in Ukraine. The clinical trials should be completed before September-October. Conducting such trials in Ukraine will give us priority access to the vaccine if its efficacy is proven,” Stepanov said.
The State Expert Center of the Ukrainian Health Ministry, in turn, has announced that it finished reviewing the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for the novel coronavirus on February 22.
President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen recalled the difficulties with the launch of the production of vaccines against COVID-19.
“We all underestimated the difficulty for the industry of ramping up a complex mass vaccine production programme from nothing. I wish I had known that last autumn. I would still have been very pleased about the researchers coming up with the vaccine so much faster than predicted, but I would have warned that it could take several more months before it was available in large quantities,” she said in an interview with Die Zeit on Thursday.
Von der Leyen noted that delays in the terms of vaccinations are due to the EU’s careful approach to the vaccine registration process.
She stressed that at first, manufacturers could not fulfill large orders that were formed by different countries.
“Larger initial orders would have been impossible to honour – even if we had paid out billions extra for this. The current bottlenecks are due to the fact that producing a vaccine is extremely complicated and the start is often shaky. There is a limited supply of raw materials, supply chains for the completely new mRNA technology need to be established and, in addition, demand for these substances from all corners of the globe is extremely high,” Von der Leyen said.
She recalled that in early January, European countries faced a shortage of vaccines, so they increased their orders.
As reported, Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov left for to India to conduct direct negotiations with manufacturers on additional volumes of Oxford/AstraZeneca and NovaVax vaccines in 2021-2022 to the already contracted 12 million doses.
Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has left from Boryspil Airport to India to conduct direct negotiations with manufacturers on additional volumes of Oxford/AstraZeneca and NovaVax vaccines in 2021-2022.
“Kyiv-Dubai-Delhi-Pune. I will be at my destination place in Pune in 17 hours. We are preparing for negotiations with the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world – Serum Institute of India,” Stepanov wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday evening.
According to him, the pandemic will be a global problem for the next several years.
“We understand that it is necessary to contract additional volumes now,” the minister said.
“The main task is to reach the already contracted 12 million doses, to reach direct agreements for the supply of additional volumes of Oxford/AstraZeneca and NovaVax vaccines in 2021-2022 directly with the manufacturer,” Stepanov emphasized.
He also noted that he will personally control the dispatch of the first batch. “The importance of the cargo obliges,” the head of the department added.
Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) has been submitted for registration in Ukraine under the obligation for emergency medical use.
According to the Center for Public Health website, an application for registration was submitted to the State Expert Center of the Health Ministry on Monday, February 15.
On the same day, WHO approved the AstraZeneca emergency vaccine and gave the green light for use of this vaccine worldwide through the COVAX initiative. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has previously been approved for emergency use in the UK, European Union and India.
The vaccine will be purchased for public funds directly from manufacturers. It is expected that at least 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be supplied to Ukraine in February 2021.
As reported, Ukraine received information from COVAX on the supply of vaccines from the manufacturer Oxford/AstraZeneca in the amount of 2.2 to 3.7 million doses in the first or second quarter of 2021.
The European Union will support vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in Ukraine with project worth EUR 40 million to provide critical assistance to ensure local readiness and preparedness for safe and effective vaccination of the population in each of the six Eastern Partnership countries, according to a press release from the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
“The European Union [EU] and the WHO Regional Office for Europe will work together in a major effort to support deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination in Ukraine. The project, funded by the EU and implemented by the Regional Office, will cover all phases – constituting ‘end-to-end’ support – of COVID-19 vaccine deployment and vaccination. It will also serve as a major investment to strengthen routine immunization system,” a press release, posted on the delegation’s website on Thursday, said.
The project will be implemented by WHO over a three-year period as part of a EUR 40 million European Union-funded initiative to support the Eastern Partnership countries in preparing for, deploying and monitoring the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
“The European Union has stood by Ukraine since the onset of the pandemic. We have provided medical equipment like oxygen concentrators for its hospitals and protective equipment for its frontline workers; we have supported Ukraine’s small businesses and cultural industry with access to finance; and we have mobilised protection for vulnerable groups like conflict-affected people and women whose livelihoods and personal safety were at risk during the lockdown. The WHO has been a key partner for the EU and now that vaccination is becoming accessible, we are happy to continue working hand in hand to ensure Ukraine is ready to receive and deploy vaccines,” Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas said.
“Thanks to support of the European Union and the World Health Organization we will be able to effectively and coherently carry out all stages of vaccination provided by the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan against COVID-19. It is possible to stop the pandemic in Ukraine and in the world only by joint efforts, so we are grateful to our partners for their help and unity for the common goal of overcoming COVID-19,” Chief Sanitary Doctor, Deputy Health Minister of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said.
Dr. Jarno Habicht, the WHO Representative and Head of the WHO Country Office in Ukraine, said: “Vaccines offer hope and protection to those fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic and to those at highest risk. Thanks to this generous support and collaboration with European Union, WHO can scale up its efforts to support Ukraine to ensure that vaccines can reach those who need them most, as soon and as efficiently as possible. Our joint and multi-year actions will support COVID vaccine deployment and vaccination in Ukraine, as well strengthens overall immunisation programme in medium term.”
The funds are reported to be used initially to support the first phase of preparation and deployment, with a focus on immediate needs for strategic program areas such as planning, equipment/supplies, health worker training and awareness campaigns.
The project builds on the European Union’s and WHO’s ongoing support to countries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the joint EUR 35 million EU Solidarity for Health Initiative, aimed to support the partner countries in their fight against the virus and address better the needs of the most vulnerable people.
“Since early 2020, the EU has mobilised over 190 million euro to help Ukraine face the challenges of COVID-19, supporting its health system, frontline workers, small and medium-sized businesses and vulnerable groups. It has activated its Civil Protection Mechanism to transfer medical equipment and supplies from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovakia to Ukraine and is providing emergency Macro-Financial Assistance worth EUR 1.2 billion to Ukraine to help limit the economic fallout of the pandemic,” the EU Delegation to Ukraine said.
Finally, the European Union is the largest donor to COVAX, an initiative which is set to provide the first batches of vaccines to Ukrainian frontline workers shortly. These efforts are part of #TeamEurope, the EU’s global approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Greek President Katerina Sakellaropula for agreeing to assist in obtaining vaccine against COVID-19 and invited her to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence
“I wish health to the Greek people. Grateful to President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou for helping obtain more COVID-19 vaccine. I invite you to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. Glad to facilitate the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Greek revolution where our Odesa played an important role,” he wrote on his Twitter page.
