The Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac will supply another 5.325 million doses of Coronavac vaccine against COVID-19 to Ukraine, said chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin.
“Today we have signed commitments on Sinovac and it is planned that another 5.325 million doses of vaccine will be purchased by Crown Agents,” he said on Wednesday during an online discussion entitled “Why Ukrainians don’t want to be vaccinated.”
Kuzin said additional supplies of Coronavac vaccine are expected in July.
“We expect that all these volumes should come to Ukraine during July,” he said.
State-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine has confirmed to the Lekhim company its readiness to accept the supply of vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) manufactured by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. under a procurement agreement for the national budget’s funds.
The Health Ministry of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine, Lekhim provided the state-owned enterprise with all the necessary documents that are required when informing about the shipment of products.
Among these documents, in particular, an invoice, a certificate of quality (analysis) of a series of products, a marketing authorization, a certificate of origin from the manufacturer, information on WHO retraining and/or a marketing authorization from a competent authority of one of the designated countries, a packing list and a document confirming adherence to the cold chain and others.
Medical Procurement of Ukraine says that the documents were handed over by the supplier on Tuesday.
“Having processed the documents sent by the supplier company yesterday, the Ministry of Health confirmed to the counterparty its readiness to accept the batch of products specified in the supplier’s documents in the amount of 200,000 bottles/syringes,” the Health Ministry said.
At the same time, the state-owned enterprise says that “the implementation of this delivery does not release the supplier from the obligation to pay a penalty and fine.”
According to the Health Ministry, a penalty for each day of delay will be charged starting March 6, 2021.
Vaccines against COVID-19 from four companies will arrive in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We have agreed to supply vaccines to Ukraine from Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax companies. The first stage of vaccination will begin this month. Our doctors, the military and the National Guard will be the first to receive the vaccine,” Zelensky said at the opening of the “Ukraine 30. Coronavirus: Challenges and Responses” Forum on Monday.
At the same time, the president said that having already resolved the issue of vaccine supplies to the country, Ukraine faced a new problem, namely “lack of faith in vaccination, refusal to vaccinate by a significant part of the population.”
“This is a new but very serious issue that we all need to address. Personally I am ready, like most world leaders, to show that vaccination is important, safe and necessary,” the president said.
The president said that Ukraine will buy only safe vaccines from world manufacturers.
“There is no official information that the Russian vaccine has a 91% effect, neither from WHO nor from world experts. The head of WHO said today that there are several key points to pay attention to, one of them – fakes. Citizens of Ukraine are people and definitely not rabbits. We have no right to experiment on them,” Zelensky said.
“Today I will talk to Pfizer. We should get one million vaccines in February. In addition, there are agreements with the Chinese manufacturer. There are agreements with the U.K. and the United States,” he added.
The president said that Ukraine must purchase vaccines and provide an opportunity for all Ukrainians to be vaccinated. “As a state, we will lift the bans on people who are vaccinated or have contracted COVID-19,” Zelensky said.
The head of state also said that Ukraine has developed a vaccination roadmap, which provides for proper and equal access for all citizens of Ukraine.
“Its main task is to cover at least half of the population of Ukraine during 2021 and early 2022,” the president said.
