Ukraine has received over 5 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 since the start of its vaccination campaign, the Ministry of Health announced on July 5.
Vaccines delivered to Ukraine included 1.9 million doses of the Chinese-developed Sinovac vaccine, 1.6 million doses of the U.K.-developed AstraZeneca vaccine and 1.6 million doses of the U.S.-German co-developed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The country got its first batch of vaccines on Feb. 23 and rolled out the campaign the next day. Since then, more than 2 million people, or about 5% of Ukraine’s population, received their first shots. Over 850,000 people, or about 2%, got both doses required for vaccination.
As of July 2, Ukraine has had 2.8 million doses remaining including 560,300 doses of AstraZeneca, 1.2 doses of Sinovac, and 1 million doses of Pfizer vaccines, Zaborona media outlet reported citing the health ministry.
Altogether, Ukraine has signed contracts to get 42 million doses, according to the health ministry. This would be enough to vaccinate half of Ukraine’s population.
Nearly 8 million doses are expected by the end of July.
COVAX
Two million doses provided by the COVAX initiative, the international vaccine alliance, are scheduled to arrive in Ukraine this month.
This batch will consist of the Moderna vaccine, an American brand supplied for the first time to Ukraine. Moderna’s efficacy is 94.1%.
COVAX has allocated a total of 16 million doses to the country, which is enough to fully vaccinate 8 million Ukrainians. The international initiative has already supplied Ukraine with 2.1 million doses, half of which came from Pfizer and half from AstraZeneca.
Pfizer
Another batch of 1 million Pfizer doses, whose efficacy is 95%, will come directly from the producer. This vaccine will arrive in Ukraine at the end of July, according to Ihor Kuzin, Ukraine’s chief sanitary doctor.
Ukraine negotiated to buy a total of 20 million doses from Pfizer by the end of the year.
According to Kuzin, Pfizer shots will be available to everyone including children with pre-existing conditions who have higher chances to contract the virus.
Sinovac
In July, 5.3 million doses of CoronaVac, a vaccine produced by Chinese manufacturer Sinovac, will arrive in Ukraine. The efficacy of CoronaVac against symptomatic cases of coronavirus is 51%.
Ukraine signed a new contract with Sinovac, which has fulfilled its previous contract to deliver 1.9 million doses.
AstraZeneca
It is not clear when Ukraine will receive more doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The country has been getting it from two sources: COVAX and licensed producers in India and South Korea.
In May, India’s Serum Institute, which is licensed to produce AstraZeneca vaccines, stopped supplies to the rest of the world due to the high demand for the vaccines at home. Ukraine was one of the countries hit by the supply disruptions.
The institute owes Ukraine 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca, effective in 63.09% of symptomatic cases, which Ukraine has pre-paid.
Novavax
Ukraine is also expecting Serum Institute to supply the first 4 million doses (out of 10 million ordered) of Novavax vaccine, which has an efficacy of 90%.
This batch was scheduled to arrive in July, however, the institute has recently said it wouldn’t be able to re-start international supplies at least until October.
