Ukrainians may be vaccinated against COVID-19 by late 2021 / REUTERS

Chairman of the Commission for Biosafety and Biosecurity at the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Serhiy Komisarenko says Ukrainians may be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021.

"By the end of the coming year, I think we will have already completed the vaccination of the entire population of Ukraine – those who are interested in it. We need to conduct a proper campaign that vaccines are effective and that they are necessary for people to stay healthy. Unfortunately, we still have people who are covered by anti-vaccine propaganda and do not want to get vaccinated. It is necessary that the maximum number of people be vaccinated," he told Ukraine 24 TV channel.

Read alsoDaily COVID-19 spike in Kyiv hits new high with almost 1,800 cases on Dec 1Komisarenko also answered a question whether the state will purchase vaccines or whether private clinics will do it in advance.

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"I know that some private pharmaceutical companies are negotiating, in particular with China, on the purchase of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. How effective it is – the Chinese say it is effective, but its clinical trials have not yet been completed. As for Western vaccines, most of all I like Moderna, in comparison with other vaccines, for example, with Pfizer – they are almost similar, but Pfizer requires that vaccines be stored at a very low temperature, -80°C…- 70°C. There is no mass infrastructure in Ukraine yet for maintaining such temperature during storage. Moderna allows storage at -20°C, and even our retail chains have such capabilities," the official said.

Coronavirus vaccine: Recent developments

  • U.S.-based pharma giant Pfizer, which jointly with Germany's BionTech is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus, updated the public on a higher rate of vaccine effectiveness.
  • A primary efficacy analysis demonstrates BNT162b2 to be 95% effective against COVID-19 beginning 28 days after the first dose; 170 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were evaluated, with 162 observed in the placebo group versus 8 in the vaccine group, the companies said in a press release.
  • The efficacy of the vaccine was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics; the observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%.
  • The safety data milestone required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) has been achieved.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on November 10 had a phone call with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, asking the German leader to assist in supplying a U.S.-German-developed COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine.
  • On November 16, Moderna, Inc. said its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial.
  • On November 18, the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) confirmed the reports on plans to provide Ukraine with a free vaccine against the coronavirus disease. In particular, about 4 million Ukrainian nationals will be able to get vaccinated in the first half of 2021. Later it became known that proper vaccination includes two shots at a price of US$7 each.