Surplus doses of COVID-19 vaccine to be offered to at-risk groups – Liashko

"Priority is given to at-risk groups, but famous people can be involved in popularizing vaccination," Liashko said in an interview with the Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper.

According to him, influential persons are involved in popularizing vaccination. They are vaccinated with surplus doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

He added that the healthcare departments of regional state administrations are responsible for the formation of lists of persons who can be vaccinated with surplus doses.

The coronavirus vaccination campaign in Ukraine started on February 24.

According to Ukraine’s national vaccination plan, vaccination is voluntary and includes five stages. Medical personnel working in hospitals designated for treatment of COVID-19 patients are among those offered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as workers of mobile teams that carry out coronavirus vaccination.

As of March 15, 53,155 people received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Ukraine.

The Health Ministry allowed the use of COVID-19 vaccine doses that remain after vaccination of healthcare workers in the first stage of the campaign to vaccinate other people.

On February 23, 500,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine, purchased at the expense of the state budget, were delivered to Ukraine.

The Health Ministry expects to receive another 1.5 million doses of the Covishield vaccine by March 31. In early March, 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to be delivered to Ukraine as part of the global COVAX Facility.

At the end of 2020, Ukraine signed an agreement on the supply of 1.9 million doses of the vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech. On March 10, the Health Ministry approved a decision on the state registration of emergency medical use of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac. The first batch of the vaccine is expected in the amount of 700,000 doses.

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