Ukraine’s health ministry eyeing possibility of combining COVID-19 vaccines

That’s according to Deputy Minister, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin, who spoke with the Apostrophe outlet, according to Ukrinform.

The Ministry of Health makes similar decisions based on the results of international research, recommendations of vaccine manufacturers, and analysis of the similar experience of other governments.

"The National Technical Group of Immunization Experts, as the health ministry’s main advisory body, recommended allowing the so-called mixing of the vaccine, but with strict compliance with certain conditions. This is about injecting the second dose of the Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech jab after the Moderna mRNA vaccine if it’s impossible to complete vaccination with the same drug. Also, if someone had a severe allergic reaction to the first dose of the AstraZeneca vector vaccine, it is allowed to introduce a second dose of Comirnaty at the doctor's discretion," said Kuzin.

The chief state sanitary doctor added that the relevant decision of the expert group is already in place. According to him, the issue of registering the relevant order and developing a detailed step-by-step protocol is being considered.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, since the start of the inoculation campaign, 3,099,711 people have been vaccinated in Ukraine, of whom 3,099,709 have received a single dose and 1,712,791 have been immunized (including two persons who got their jabs in another country). A total of 4,812,500 vaccinations were performed.

im