Ukraine will receive the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines as part of the COVAX initiative by April 15, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“The first batch of vaccines is 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca and 117,000 doses of Pfizer. According to COVAX, we should receive it by April 15. By the end of May, we should receive 1.7 million doses,” he said on the air of the Hard with Vlashchenko program on the Ukraine 24 TV channel.
Stepanov recalled that in total, Ukraine will receive 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX.
At the same time, he noted that COVAX, first of all, provides vaccines to countries in which there is no access to vaccines and vaccination has not begun.
“COVAX gave vaccines primarily to those countries that have not started vaccination,” he said.
At the same time, Stepanov stressed the difficulties with the import of vaccines.
“Countries are simply blocking exports, not paying attention to signed contracts, not paying attention to anything, they are simply blocking exports. If there is an appropriate amount of vaccines, we will be able to vaccinate up to 5 million people a month in a very quiet mode,” he said.
Commenting on the situation with the spread of COVID-19, Stepanov noted that, in general, “there is no alarming information that in some city 90% of beds are filled, there are hospitals that are 90% full, even 96% full.”
He said that the most difficult situation is in Kyiv and Odesa. At the same time, the Ministry of Health plans to send a commission to Odesa, which will have to “recalculate the occupancy of COVID-19 beds with oxygen.” Stepanov said that such a commission is already working in Kharkiv.
