Ukraine will receive 117,000 doses of the U.S.-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 from the global vaccine alliance COVAX in mid-February, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov announced on Facebook.
Within half a year, COVAX will also provide Ukraine with 2.2 to 3.7 million doses of the British AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to Viktor Liashko, Ukraine’s chief sanitary doctor, Ukraine is one of 18 countries that will receive vaccines from COVAX soon.
“Ukraine was among the first to draft and sent an application for vaccines in the first wave of distribution,” Liashko wrote on Facebook. COVAX received applications from 72 countries.
On Jan. 29, the Ukrainian government rolled out the schedule for state-funded COVID-19 vaccination in 2021.
According to the plan, medical workers providing care to COVID-19 patients and front line troops in eastern Ukraine will be prioritized for free vaccinations in the first wave.
Next in line will be other medical staff, elderly people, and employees of state security agencies and educational establishments.
Only after these groups have been vaccinated, can people in other, unspecified categories get the vaccine for free.
Ukrainians will also have the option to buy vaccines. Lekhim, a Ukrainian pharmaceutical company, promised that it would import 5 million doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac Biotech vaccine for sale in April-May.
However, most Ukrainians don’t want to get inoculated even if it’s free, according to a survey, conducted by the Rating sociological group.
Only 39% of Ukrainians are ready to receive shots against coronavirus if the vaccine is available commercially, while 56% said they aren’t ready. Even if the vaccination is free, only 43% of respondents are ready to get it, while 52% said they would refuse.
