The incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine continues to decline, and the number of hospitalizations is also decreasing, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Last week, some 25,500 cases of COVID-19 incidence were detected, which is less than in the previous week (27,157 cases). If you look at the statistics, we see the situation is stabilized. For example, in the first week of December, some 89,000 cases were recorded. The number of hospitalized patients is also changing – in the first week of December there were about 28,000 people, and as of Monday 17,911 people in medical facilities,” he said.
According to the minister, the number of antigen tests is increasing. “During the week, some 144,248 PCR tests were done. The number of tests with rapid antigen tests is also growing, some 52,222 studies were conducted, which is 20,000 more than the previous week. Ukraine is provided with test systems,” he said.
Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov told President Volodymyr Zelensky that today Ukraine received confirmation for the supply of 12 million doses of vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Novavax, the presidential press service said.
“The sooner we receive vaccines, the faster we will overcome pandemics in Ukraine. I know that the Cabinet of Ministers is carefully working on the development of a website that will help Ukrainians to easily and conveniently register for vaccination. Like every Ukrainian, I look forward to the start of the vaccination process. Some 12 million doses is a good signal from our partners, and this will be enough to ensure vaccinations within the first months after the start of supplies,” Zelensky said.
Deliveries will take place from February 2021.
Thus, during a meeting with the president, Stepanov said an agreement had been reached on the supply of vaccines developed with the participation of AstraZeneca (Great Britain and Oxford University) and Novavax (the United States), which are produced under license agreements at the facilities of Serum Institute (India).
The confirmation received will be implemented through a contract between the Serum Institute and Crown Agents.
British purchasing agency Crown Agents will purchase COVID-19 vaccines for Ukraine, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
“At an extraordinary meeting of the government, it was decided that the procurement of vaccines against COVID-19 will be carried out by the international organization Crown Agents. It will have the authority to conclude contracts in accordance with the preliminary negotiations held by the Ministry of Health, the leadership of the state, as well as logistics support of goods,” he said.
Stepanov noted that the company is purchasing vaccines against COVID-19 for different countries, in particular for the UK.
“We have changed the purchasing organization, because at the end of 2020, the work of the State Enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine was extremely ineffective. I consider the organization of the process by the leadership of this company ineffective,” the minister added.
The test systems that are used in Ukraine can detect a mutated strain of coronavirus, which was recorded in the UK, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told reporters on Thursday.
“The complexity of the situation with the mutated strain of coronavirus in the UK is that, according to preliminary data, it is 70% more infectious. At the same time, they have no evidence that it causes more complications, more severe disease or increased mortality. We increased control. Our test systems are able to detect this strain,” he said.
The minister noted that no cases of the mutated strain of coronavirus have been registered in Ukraine yet.
“We have a small number of flights from the UK. Basically, our citizens, who work there or study, come. We do not consider it necessary to close air traffic and then send planes to pick up our citizens,” Stepanov added.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a closed meeting has decided to dismiss Ulana Suprun from the post of acting Minister of Health of Ukraine, MP from the European Solidarity faction Oleksiy Honcharenko has said.
“The decision was made unanimously. The decision on Suprun is final,” he said on Facebook.
He noted that this decision was made in a package of personnel issues (dismissal) along with the issue of dismissal of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko from the post of head of Kyiv City State Administration.
As reported, Ulana Suprun was appointed acting Minister of Health on July 27, 2016.
