PM Shmyhal says budget funds enough to buy COVID-19 vaccines

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says enough funds have been allocated in the national budget for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19.

He announced this during a meeting of the Ukrainian parliament's Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Health Insurance, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

Read alsoWorld Bank approves $90 mln aid to Ukraine to boost vaccination

Answering a question whether he thinks his ministry has enough money to combat the epidemic, Shmyhal said: "While distributing funds for vaccines, I, first of all, rely on information provided by the Health Ministry and the Finance Ministry. And then we work with the budget committee. Therefore, at the moment when the decision was made, at the moment when the budget was approved, the amount of funds was sufficient."

He mentioned that, if needed, the parliament was ready to give more funds for vaccines. "Some UAH 6.5 billion (US$235.4 million) was also added due to a redistribution of the budget," he said.

"Now, according to the Health Ministry, these funds are enough to provide Ukraine with the required quantity of vaccines under the National Vaccination Plan approved by the government," he added.

COVID-19 vaccine procurement

On April 13, 2021, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that the UAH 6.5 billion needed for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines would be provided through the financing of the Healthcare Guarantee Program in the fourth quarter.

According to him, when the national budget was formed six months ago, the Health Ministry insisted on allocating UAH 15.1 billion, or US$546.9 million, for vaccine procurements, but a mere UAH 4 billion, or US$144.9 million, was eventually allocated. To pay for the next batch of contracted vaccines, the ministry needed UAH 6.5 billion, or US$235.4 million. Not to amend the budget and not to waste time, the Health Ministry decided to temporarily borrow this amount from the budget of the Healthcare Guarantee Program for the fourth quarter of 2021.

The Finance Ministry, in turn, should refund the corresponding sum to the Health Ministry within three months.

Vaccination in Ukraine

• On February 24, 2021, Ukraine launched a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
• The following vaccines are now being used in Ukraine: Covishield (AstraZeneca), a recombinant vector vaccine produced under a license at the Serum Institute of India; CoronaVac, which was developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech; and Comirnaty by Pfizer/BioNTech, which was supplied under the COVAX Facility.
• On April 23, 2021, Ukraine received over 367,200 doses of South Korea's AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccine under the COVAX Facility.