Ukraine allocates almost UAH 4B for COVID-19 vaccination – Stepanov

UAH 3.9 billion has been allocated for a coronavirus vaccination campaign in Ukraine, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.

He said this at the All-Ukrainian Forum "Ukraine 30. Coronavirus: Challenges and Answers" in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukraine’s state budget for 2021 provides more than UAH 3.9 billion for the vaccination campaign. This amount includes the purchase of vaccines," Stepanov said.

He recalled that the purchase of vaccines by the government’s decision will be carried out by the international organization Crown Agents, with which Ukraine has been cooperating since 2015.

According to the minister, within the framework of the COVAX Facility, Ukraine expects to receive 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, in particular 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and from 2.2 million to 3.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine during the first and second quarters.

As Ukrinform reported, the Ministry of Health plans to start a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in February 2021. The ministry plans to vaccinate 50% of the population of Ukraine in 2021-2022.

As of February 8, Ukraine reported 1,246,990 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 2,141 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours.

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