Almost 88.2% of Ukrainian teachers have already received one dose of the vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus infection, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine said.
“As of today, October 25, 2021, at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination was received by 88.2% of employees of general secondary education institutions, almost 400,000 teachers across the country were vaccinated with two doses,” the Ministry of Education said.
It is reported, that the highest level of vaccination is demonstrated by: Mykolaiv region – 98%, Kyiv region – 95.5%, Kharkiv region – 94.6%, Donetsk region – 92.7%, Khmelnytsky region – 91.6% (full and incomplete vaccination cycle). At the same time, the vaccination threshold of 80% of school workers has not been reached only in Rivne region.
The ministry reports that 8,000 schools are on vacation since October 25. In the regions caught in “red” zones of epidemic danger, there are schools on vacation or distance learning that have not reached the vaccination rate of 100%. In Odesa region there are 149 schools, in Donetsk region – 93, in Zaporizhia region – 47.
Almost 81% of teachers in Ukraine have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet said.
“Today, 81% of school workers have already been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Over the past five days, the number of teachers vaccinated with the first dose in Lviv region has increased by 18%, by almost 14% in Dnipropetrovsk region,” Shkarlet wrote in his Telegram channel.
According to him, 67.9% of teachers passed the full vaccination cycle in Luhansk region, in Cherkasy region – 64%, in Poltava region – 62.8%, in the city of Kyiv – 62.6%, in Sumy region – 59.7%. At the same time, the minister says that Kherson, Rivne and Odesa regions have not yet demonstrated tangible progress in vaccination rates.
Ukraine is negotiating with the governments of states and manufacturers of the Moderna vaccine on the supply of this drug to Ukraine, the Ministry of Health has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The Ministry of Health and the government of Ukraine are negotiating both with the governments of the countries and with the manufacturers of vaccines regarding the possible supply of these drugs to Ukraine,” the Ministry of Health said.
The department reported that as of August 24, there were 805,652 doses of Moderna vaccine in warehouses in Ukraine.
The ministry clarified that the available Moderna vaccine will be used mainly for vaccination with the second dose of citizens who were vaccinated with the first dose.
As of August 24, there are more than 11 million vaccines from various manufacturers in national, regional and local warehouses.
Experts from Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) recommend the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to reduce the interval between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from 12 weeks to eight-four weeks.
“We recommend that the Health Ministry’s expert group should decide to reduce the interval between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and accept the relevant recommendation from the Australian technical group. It suggests that it is advisable to reduce the interval to four-eight weeks during the period of an outbreak risk,” Head of the KSE Center for Health Care Economics Yuriy Hanychenko said during an online presentation of an analysis of the situation with the spread of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Recent studies have shown a decrease in the effectiveness of one dose of AstraZeneca against the delta strain, he said, while two doses show similar effectiveness as against other strains.
“With a significant risk of an outbreak in Ukraine, those vaccinated with only one dose will receive little protection. This risk does not outweigh the benefit of the potential increase in efficacy with a second dose after 12 weeks,” Hanychenko said.
He also noted that a number of countries, in particular the United Kingdom and Australia, have already reduced the interval between the two doses.
In addition, the expert stressed that the epidemic situation in Ukraine continues to worsen, but remains under control so far.
“Beds with oxygen and resuscitation beds are loaded by 10% and 15%, respectively. The case detection rate is at 2.8%. At the same time, hospitalizations are already a quarter higher than discharges. That is, the gap between hospitalizations and discharges is increasing and the burden on the healthcare system is accelerating. Over the week, the number of patients increased by 16%, last week the growth was 9%,” he said.
Hanychenko stressed that the incidence is growing in 16 out of 25 regions. There were four such regions last week.
By the end of 2021, another 17 million doses of the American Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Ukraine, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin said in an interview with Radio Liberty on Saturday.
“By the end of the year, Ukraine will receive another 17 million of Pfizer,” he said.
At the same time, Kuzin stressed that the coronavirus outbreak may occur earlier this vaccine reaches the country. Therefore, the chief state sanitary doctor of Ukraine does not advise waiting for the opportunity to choose, but getting vaccinated as soon as possible with the vaccine that is available now.
Earlier it was reported that as of August 7, more than 4 million people were vaccinated in Ukraine.
The first 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus, donated by the United States of America on the COVAX initiative, have arrived in Ukraine, UNICEF has reported.
“The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) delivered today 2,000,040 doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the American company Moderna, to Ukraine. This batch of vaccines is donated by the U.S. Government through the global COVAX Facility,” the message reads.
As noted, this batch of COVID vaccine will be used to do vaccinations by mobile teams of organized and professional groups of the previous stages of vaccination.
“Our main goal is to protect as many Ukrainians against COVID-19 as possible. We are thankful to partners who stand with us. We are now accelerating vaccination roll-out, so everyone could have access to vaccines. I urge all Ukrainians who not yet got their shots to come and get vaccinated in the mass vaccination centers to protect their health,” said Viktor Liashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine
It is noted that Moderna is an mRNA vaccine. It requires special storage and transportation, which is provided by the United States Agency for International Development USAID.
