KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2021) EU Council President Charles Michel said on Wednesday that he would personally engage in the process of shipping COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility to accelerate the delivery.
In late January, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also expressed the bloc's readiness to assist Ukraine in fighting the coronavirus pandemic until the country can receive vaccines through COVAX. Later, she called on EU member states to donate part of their vaccines to Ukraine, as those distributed through the COVAX initiative would not be enough.
"The EU has already provided 190 million Euros [$229.5 million] for Ukraine to fight COVID and 1.2 billion euros in macrofinancial assistance, and we are helping Ukraine gain access to COVID vaccines. The COVAX facility, massively supported by the EU, has allocated significant amounts of vaccines to Ukraine, and I will personally engage to speed up the delivery," Michel said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev.
Ukraine is set to receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX mechanism, and another 2.2 million to 3.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the first quarter of the year.
