Even though Ukraine started vaccinating its population against COVID-19 over a month ago, only two Ukrainians have been vaccinated with the required two doses of the vaccine.
The reason is that in mid-March, the Health Ministry extended the gap between the first and the second vaccine dose from four to 12 weeks.
The decision came on March 17 after new data suggested that a longer period between AstraZeneca vaccine shots provides better protection from coronavirus.
The Health Ministry based its decision on a study published in the medical journal The Lancet on March 6. The findings rely on trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. According to the new data, the longer-interval immunization strategy of 12 weeks provides an efficacy of 81% compared to 55% when shots are given less than six weeks apart.
A single shot of AstraZeneca’s vaccine is 76% effective from day 22 to day 90 after the injection. Viktor Lyashko, Ukraine’s chief sanitary doctor and deputy health minister, was diagnosed with coronavirus days after being vaccinated.
The U.K. government has also amended its medical protocol, delaying the second dose to 12 weeks after the first dose. So did Germany, France, Canada, and recently, Ukraine.
Ukraine received 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Feb. 23 and started using it the following day. It was the country’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccine.
A second shipment, containing 215,000 doses of China-made SinovacBiotech’s vaccine called CoronaVac, arrived on March 25. It hasn’t been used yet because it’s still pending approval from the Ukrainian government and the World Health Organization.
CoronaVac’s efficacy is 50.4% if the doses are received 14 days apart. However, in January the producers suggested that it could be 70% effective with a three-week interval between doses.
| Vaccine name | Interval between shots |
| Pfizer/BioNTech | 21 days |
| NovaVax | 21 days |
| AstraZeneca | 84 days |
| CorovaVac | 21 days |
| Moderna | 28 days |
| Johnson & Johnson | 0 days (it is a single-dose vaccine) |
Ukraine expects to receive close to 2 million doses of CoronaVac. For now, only the AstraZeneca vaccine is available in the country.
As of March 31, 231,554 people have received their first shots of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
Two people in Ukraine have gotten both doses — the first person got them at the start of the vaccination campaign. The second person got his second shot on March 29. It’s unclear why he was inoculated in breach of the new protocol.
Medical workers will start administering second doses on May 24.
The Health Ministry’s vaccination plan stipulates that both shots have to come from the same vaccine brand. Giving two different brands to one person should only be done in case of interruptions in vaccine supply.
Ukraine expects to receive from 2.2 to 3.7 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine from COVAX, the global coronavirus vaccine alliance.
COVAX will also give Ukraine 117,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine co-produced in the U.S. and Germany. Pfizer’s is 95% effective with a 21 day interval between doses.
In all, Ukraine will get 8 million free doses from COVAX. The first batch is expected in early April.
Ukraine has also contracted to buy 15 million American-developed NovaVax vaccines, which showed 89% efficacy in the latest trials in the U.K. The shots should be received 21 days apart, according to the protocol.
