24 March 2021, Wednesday, 18:31 148

Delivery Of Next Batch Of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) Vaccine May Be Postponed For Certain Period - MP Radutskyi

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Nation Health, Medical Aid and Health Insurance Mykhailo Radutskyi (Servant of the People faction) says that the delivery of the next batch of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine to Ukraine may be postponed for a certain period.

He announced this on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"The delivery of the next batch of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine to Ukraine may be postponed for a certain period. The reason is the information campaign launched against the Indian vaccine in our country. The Foreign Ministry received a letter from the Indian Embassy, which emphasizes the inadmissibility of defamatory statements regarding India as a manufacturer of medical products and the AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine supplied to Ukraine," he wrote.

The MP stressed that the Indian side considers the vaccine to be absolutely safe and effective, which is confirmed by the World Health Organization.

Radutskyi also noted that at the moment Ukraine has contracted 1.5 million AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccines.

“According to my information, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed Ministers Maksym Stepanov and Dmytro Kuleba to find additional ways to speed up the delivery of the next batch of CoviShield vaccine to Ukraine. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine should do everything necessary as soon as possible to convince Indian partners of the non-involvement of the state and Ukrainian society in discrediting the supplier of the vaccines," said Radutskyi.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees no reason to refuse the AstraZeneca (CoviShield) coronavirus vaccine.

The plane carrying the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine from the manufacturer Serum Institute (India) arrived in Ukraine on the morning of February 23.

On February 24, Ukraine started vaccination against the coronavirus with the AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine; on March 22, the second stage of coronavirus vaccination began in Ukraine.