Ukraine has signed contracts for the supply of 42 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of this year, about 5 million more doses are needed, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“If you look at the number of doses that we have contracted, I emphasize, it was the contracted amount for which we paid the funds, together with COVAX, then we now have 42 million doses of vaccines for which we have already signed [contracts], these are all supplies for this year,” the minister said during the Segodnya Vecherom (Tonight) program on the Ukraine 24 television on Friday evening.
“About 5 million more doses are needed,” Stepanov noted.
“We have relevant proposals, in particular from the Serum Institute, to increase the amount of doses of the Novavax vaccine, and we also have a proposal regarding Sinovac. Now we are deciding on the timeframe of delivery,” he added.
Another batch of CoronaVac vaccines was delivered to Ukraine, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.
“The next 500,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech have just landed in Boryspil,” Stepanov said on his Facebook page.
According to him, a total of 1.9 million of this vaccine have been contracted in Ukraine, of which 1.215 million have already been received by the country.
Ukraine has signed a contract with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer to supply an additional 10 million doses against coronavirus disease, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has told President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“After lengthy and difficult negotiations with Pfizer, we have reached an agreement on the supply of an additional 10 million doses. We signed the contract this night. That is, in total, we will receive 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine during this calendar year,” Stepanov said.
The press service of the head of state said that according to the agreements, Ukraine will receive the first 500,000 doses under this contract in May-June 2021, 4.5 million doses in the third quarter (July-September), and the remaining 15 million doses in the fourth quarter of this year.
The conclusion of the agreement was made possible thanks to Zelensky’s direct communication with Pfizer CEO Albert Burla. The president personally coordinated the process of negotiations on the supply of the drug to Ukraine, because today the demand for vaccines in the world significantly exceeds production. Therefore, the Ukrainian government used various tools to provide the country with a high-quality vaccine. In particular, the strategic communications of the President and the constant operational communications of the Ministry of Health made it possible to sign a contract and receive a high-quality vaccine in Ukraine in significant volumes.
Zelensky thanked the CEO of Pfizer for helping Ukraine during the difficult times of the pandemic and noted the efforts of the representatives of Ukraine who accompanied the signing of the contract.
“This is a truly remarkable result. Now the task of the state is to ensure vaccination of the maximum number of citizens. It is also necessary to more actively explain to people the importance of vaccination against COVID-19, because this is the only way to overcome the pandemic, return to normal life and forget about quarantines forever,” the president said.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
Ukraine has received 367,200 doses of the AstraZeneca-SKBio coronavirus vaccine made in South Korea and delivered by the UNICEF and the WHO within the COVAX facility’s framework.
This batch will be used for vaccinating priority groups and people aged 65 and up, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister, chief public health official Viktor Liashko told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the UNICEF press release, Ukraine will receive vaccines for the inoculation of 8 million residents by the end of 2021 via the COVAX facility.
The UNICEF noted that all vaccines supplied via the COVAX facility complied with the WHO safety and efficacy criteria.
“Importantly, against the backdrop of fierce competition and struggle for access to vaccines in the world, COVAX has been confirming in practice the fulfillment of tasks for which this global partnership has been created – to ensure fair opportunities for all,” the press release quoted Liashko as saying.
As reported earlier, the UNICEF delivered 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Ukraine last week via the COVAX facility.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated an additional UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, the Ministry of Finance said.
“On April 14, a government resolution was adopted on an additional direction from the state budget of funds in the amount of UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against acute respiratory disease COVID-19. This decision was agreed on the same day by the Verkhovna Rada budget committee,” the statement said.
As the ministry noted, taking into account the corresponding expenses in the past year, the total amount of state budget expenditures for the purchase of vaccines is UAH 11.4 billion.
The Ministry of Finance also indicated that it is planned to vaccinate 24 million people, or 70% of the adult population, by the end of 2021. However, this requires almost 6 million vaccinations every month from May to the end of the year (on average, over 250,000 vaccinations per day), which the Ministry of Finance considers a challenge for the Ministry of Health in the context of timely procurement and delivery to Ukraine, as well as organization of vaccination.
“For this, it is necessary to ensure the receipt of almost 48 million doses of vaccines, taking into account 8 million doses that should be received free of charge under the COVAX mechanism,” the ministry said.
