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.
Ukraine will expedite the vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) and administer from 5 million to 7 million vaccine shots per month in summer, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“We are planning to reach the target [from 5 million to 7 million vaccine shots per month] sometime by summer. Yet again, that would require everyone’s compliance with the earlier agreements, and that constitutes a problem,” Stepanov said on the Svoboda Slova program aired by the ICTV television channel on Monday night.
There are few vaccinations on weekends because doctors tasked with administering the vaccine at the first stage have their days off, he said when commenting on the opinion that the vaccination process might take over a decade unless vaccination is expedited.
The minister assured the audience that the number of vaccine shots would grow to 10,000 this week.
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.
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.
The European Investment Bank will provide Ukraine with EUR 50 million for vaccination against COVID-19, Deputy Health Minister Ihor Ivaschenko said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.
“Last week, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a president’s order authorizing Health Minister Maksym Stepanov to sign a letter amending the financial agreement between Ukraine and the EIB,” he said.
“The government has asked the EIB to redistribute part of the funds and channel them to the vaccination of the population in Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers has received confirmation of the provision of EUR 50 million, which will be used for the purchase of vaccines, equipment for the refrigerating chain, as well as logistics. Relevant amendments to the agreement will be signed in the near future,” the deputy minister said.
Ukraine is preparing for the introduction of vaccination passports against COVID-19, said chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko in an interview with Ukraine 24 on the Telegram channel of the TV channel on Tuesday.
According to him, all vaccinated will be entered into the electronic health care system so far.
“When mandatory vaccination passports are introduced at the international level, Ukrainian doctors will be able to promptly issue a certificate of vaccinations,” Liashko stressed.
Also, according to the chief sanitary doctor, the government is doing everything possible to vaccinate the population of Ukraine over 18 free of charge with two doses of the vaccine.
