Ukraine to buy 2 million doses of China's CoronaVac vaccine

Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had agreed to purchase about 2 million doses of Chinese developed CoronaVac vaccine. This is Ukraine's first commercial vaccine contract. It will receive its first batch of 700,000 doses within one month after the vaccine is registered in China or elsewhere, said a statement from the presidency. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement that authorities would soon roll out "a large-scale" vaccination program.

Sinovac Biotech, one of China's leading vaccine producers, developed CoronaVac which underwent trials in Brazil, China, Turkey and Indonesia.

Ukraine's deal with Sinovac provides for 1,913,316 doses at 504 hryvnia ($18) per dose, which the presidency said would be given free of charge starting with healthcare workers and the most vulnerable.

It added that the authorities were continuing negotiations with other vaccine producers without naming them.

The health ministry said earlier this month it had agreed a delivery of 8 million vaccine doses via Covax, a World Health Organisation mechanism for global vaccine distribution.
The WHO and partners expect to begin Covax delivers in 2021.

Some pro-Moscow politicians in ex-Soviet Ukraine have lobbied for the introduction of the Russian-developed Sputnik V jab.

But health officials in Kiev have so far refused noting that the Sputnik V was registered before completing large-scale trials.

With the population of 42 million, Ukraine has officially recorded just over one million virus infections and 18,324 Covid-19 deaths.

(With AFP inputs)