The first batch of coronavirus vaccine is expected to arrive in Ukraine on the morning of Feb. 23, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the President’s Office.
The 500,000 doses of the vaccine were loaded on a plane on Feb. 21. The cargo, en route from India to Ukraine, will first make a stop in Turkey, lengthening the delivery time.
“The vaccine is on the way. I hope it will be in Ukraine in the morning. It is already on the plane. But the plane has its course. Unfortunately, the first batch is not coming to Ukraine directly. There are some logistical problems,” Tymoshenko told the journalists during the “Ukraine 30. Infrastructure” forum held in Kyiv on Feb. 22.
Ukrainian authorities promised to launch the nationwide vaccination drive on February 15. However, they did not meet their own deadline. Meanwhile, 83 countries all around the globe have been vaccinating their citizens since December 2020.
On Feb. 18, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov flew to India in order to personally oversee the shipment of the first batch of the vaccine.
The vaccine expected in Ukraine on Feb. 23 was developed by AstraZeneca, a British–Swedish company based in the U.K., which has licensed India’s Serum Institute to produce it.
The 500,000 doses are the first portion of the 12 million doses that Ukraine ordered from India. These include vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and U.S. biotech firm Novavax and produced by Serum Institute.
On Feb. 22, Stepanov announced that he had negotiated the supply of an additional batch of 5 million Novavax vaccines on top of the 10 million doses Ukraine already ordered.
If AstraZeneca’s vaccine comes to Ukraine by 4 p.m. on Feb. 23, it will be distributed across the country the following day, said Stepanov’s deputy Viktor Lyashko.
How the vaccines are distributed
Medical workers who treat COVID-19 patients and front line troops in Donbas will be the first to get the vaccine. The authorities aim to vaccinate 367,000 people from this first priority group by the end of April.
The second wave of vaccination will include people aged 80 and older and emergency medical workers. They will be vaccinated by May.
At the beginning of summer, other medical workers will receive their shots. Next in line are people aged 70-79 years and employees of state security agencies, who will get their shots by August.
By December, authorities aim to vaccinate people between the ages of 60-69, employees of educational institutions and people with preexisting chronic illnesses that make them vulnerable to coronavirus.
In total, Ukrainian authorities want to vaccinate 14.4 million people by the end of 2021.
As many as 58,000 Ukrainians from risk groups are looking forward to the vaccine and have already signed up for free vaccination, according to Lyashko.
How to apply to get vaccinated
Those who are not in the high-priority groups will be able to book a place for themselves in the vaccination queue starting March 1, according to Lyashko.
Their names will be put on a waiting list.
According to Lyashko, there will be three ways to sign up for vaccination: a special government website, family doctors’ offices and a call center.
The government might later add a fourth option: to sign up for vaccination using Diya, a mobile application developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
More vaccine to come
Ukraine expects to receive vaccines from other sources as well.
One is COVAX, the global coronavirus vaccine alliance, which is giving Ukraine 8 million doses for free. Ukraine will get the first batch of the COVAX vaccines, 117,000 doses, at some point in February, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Also, some 700,000 doses are expected to arrive in February from China, according to the Health Ministry. This is the first batch of the 1.9 million doses of the vaccine Ukraine purchased from Chinese producer Sinovac Biotech.
