Since the spring of 2020, the situation with the spread of coronavirus in Ukraine was not just unsuccessful, it was unprincipled, unsystematic and unproductive, Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, told Izvestia on February 24.
“The authorities tried to rush to different corners in the fight against coronavirus. We feel the same way about vaccinations, ”he said.
According to Medvedchuk, representatives of the Ukrainian opposition tried to negotiate with the authorities on the acquisition and production of the Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus in Ukraine, but these agreements were ignored.
“The authorities, on the basis of political arguments, are ignoring proposals to use one of the most effective vaccines in the world today. <...> Instead, Ukraine is walking around the world with an outstretched hand to obtain such a vaccine, ”he said.
According to Medvedchuk, Ukraine has purchased 410 thousand drugs from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca to vaccinate 200 thousand people.
Earlier that day, it became known that vaccination against coronavirus had begun in Ukraine. The first to be vaccinated was the resuscitator of the local hospital Evgeny Gorenko. The vaccine was given with the Indian vaccine Covishield, developed by AstraZeneca, which arrived the day before.
A day earlier, the country registered the Covishield vaccine jointly produced by AstraZeneca / Oxford. It also announced an agreement to receive 15 million doses of Novavax coronavirus vaccine.
On February 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained the lack of access to vaccines. He noted that the country is not an equal member of the EU, and therefore is “not a priority for countries that have been receiving the vaccine for a long time.”
The world’s first COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V was registered by the Russian Ministry of Health in August 2020. It was developed by specialists from the Gamaleya Center on the basis of a studied and tested platform of human adenoviral vectors. The final effectiveness of the drug was 91.4%, in relation to severe cases – 100%.
The drug was approved in Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Algeria, Serbia, Paraguay, Palestine, Venezuela, UAE, Turkmenistan, Hungary, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Lebanon, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (subject of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uzbekistan, Gabon and Ghana.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has no plans to register the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the country.