The COVID-19 vaccination drive is unacceptably slow in Ukraine, according to Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.
Ukraine started vaccination on Feb. 24. By March 9, only 19,118 people have received the first dose.
That’s far from what was planned.
“I’m not satisfied with these numbers,” Stepanov said at his daily briefing on March 9. “We were supposed to be vaccinating 10,000 people a day by the end of last week. Today, I’m interfering.”
Stepanov said he would hold a teleconference with governors and local health officials to find ways to speed up the process.
Since mid-February, Ukraine has seen a spike in the number of infections and hospitalizations that the government defines as the third wave of coronavirus. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the more contagious, British variant of the novel coronavirus was detected in Ukraine, Stepanov said on March 9. It’s the first of the newly emerged variants of the virus to be found in Ukraine.
In the light of these developments, the government will have to find a way to speed up vaccination.
If it continues at the current pace, Ukraine will vaccinate less than half a million people by the end of 2021. Its target was to vaccinate at least 14 million people by the end of 2021, and at least 21 million people overall. Ukraine’s population is estimated to be 42 million people.
Earlier, Stepanov said that by summer, Ukraine should be vaccinating 5-7 million people per month.
At the same time, only some 155,000 people signed up for the vaccine waiting list in the five days after the government started taking applications in early March.
In accordance with the government’s vaccination plan, the first in line to be vaccinated are doctors treating COVID-19 patients and soldiers at the front lines in the Donbas.
Reportedly, many of those offered the vaccine, including doctors, are rejecting it due to concerns about its quality or vaccines in general. Disinformation about the supposedly poor quality of the vaccine, spread by opposition politicians on TV and social media, aggravates the society’s distrust.
Ukrainians are receiving the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute. Despite the fact that this vaccine was approved for use in many countries, including Canada, in Ukraine it was largely met with distrust and seen as a less safe option than Pfizer’s.
Ukraine’s daily COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries from Jan. 10, 2021 to March 8, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health
