The COVAX project from the World Health Organization (WHO), designed to promote the receipt of vaccines against coronavirus in less prosperous countries, has changed the date for the delivery of the Pfize vaccine to Ukraine, the deadline has been shifted from February to early March. This was announced on Monday, February 22, by the deputy head of the presidential office, Kirill Tymoshenko.
“On COVAX’s initiative, we get Pfizer. At the end of February, the vaccine was supposed to arrive in the country, but the program changed the delivery date, and we expect it in early March, ”he said at a press conference during the Ukraine 30 forum.
In addition, Tymoshenko said that now the first vaccine for Ukraine will be from AstraZeneca. The first shipments, he said, will arrive in Ukraine on the morning of February 23.
“The vaccine is on its way. I hope she will be in Ukraine in the morning, ”he said.
Earlier that day, the Ukrainian authorities announced that they had agreed to receive 15 million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine. According to the head of the country’s Ministry of Health Maxim Stepanov, the manufacturer will supply 5 million additional doses, and an agreement will be signed in the near future. The first deliveries will begin in July 2021.
On February 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the situation with the spread of coronavirus in the country has stabilized. The head of state also promised to receive 1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine in February, but did not specify which one, but mentioned the planned purchases of Novavax, which is being tested in the United States and has not yet been applied anywhere.
On February 1, Zelensky explained the country’s lack of access to vaccines: he said that Ukraine is not an equal member of the EU, and therefore is “not a priority for countries that have been receiving vaccines for a long time.”
On January 29, the Minister of Health of Ukraine Maxim Stepanov announced that the country is ready to buy excess volumes of vaccines against coronavirus from the EU countries. Meanwhile, there are no plans to register the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the country, he stressed.
According to the Worldometers portal, over 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 have been registered in Ukraine for the entire time of the pandemic, while more than 1.1 million people have recovered, more than 25 thousand patients have died.