First batch of COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Ukraine

A Turkish Airlines plane delivered the cargo to Boryspil International Airport, Suspilne reports.

The first batch contains 500,000 doses of the vaccine. The plane with medicines on board took off from Mumbai on February 22 and arrived in Kyiv after a stopover in Istanbul.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine was registered for emergency use in Ukraine on February 23.

This vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca company. In fact, this is the same "Oxford" vaccine that Serum Institute of India (SII) produces for the local Indian market. In the summer of 2020, AstraZeneca and SII signed a vaccine manufacturing agreement to "help low- and middle-income countries."

The Covishield vaccine is administered intramuscularly in two doses (0.5 ml each) 28 days apart.

Ukraine also received information from the COVAX Facility on the supply of 2.2 to 3.7 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines in the first and second quarters of 2021.

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