KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2021) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the government on Tuesday to domesticate the production of COVID-19 vaccines if formulae become internationally available, as the country's vaccination campaign is lagging due to delayed supplies.
"The Head of State stressed the need to have adequate facilities to be able to quickly launch the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the country, if the decision is made at the international level to open public access to the COVID-19 vaccine formula," Zelenskyy's press service cited him as saying during a conference call with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.
At a separate briefing on Tuesday, Stepanov said he was not happy with how slowly Ukraine's vaccination campaign was proceeding and complained about delays in the supply of contracted doses. Hoping to diversify suppliers, he has already begun negotiation for procurement into the next two years.
"As health minister, I have already started negotiations on procurement of vaccines in 2022 and 2023 in order to secure contracts, preferably with more than one manufacturer," Stepanov said.
Ukraine launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive in February. Despite the 3.2 million of doses contracted for the first quarter of 2021, delays in supplies made it possible to provide only about 860,000 Ukrainians with at least one dose. The country's portfolio includes the vaccines by AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac, as well as some 367,000 doses of South Korea-made vaccine AstraZeneca-SKBio received through the WHO-led COVAX mechanism.
