26 March 2021, Friday, 14:36 191

Vaccination With 2nd Dose Of AstraZeneca Scheduled From 20th Of May After New Delivery - Deputy Health Minister Liashko

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

Deputy Minister of Health – Senior Medical Officer Viktor Liashko states that vaccination with the second dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is scheduled from the 20th of May after a new delivery to Ukraine.

He announced this during a briefing, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"The second vaccination - we expect it to be around the 20th of May," Liashko said.

At the same time, he clarified that so far all 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) are used for the first vaccination, therefore, the AstraZeneca vaccine from the following supplies will be used for the second vaccination.

It is noted that CoviShield and AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured at another plant in another country, are identical in composition and vaccine manufacturing technology, therefore, they are interchangeable.

At the same time, there is no data on the interchangeability of vaccines against COVID-19 made on different platforms (for example, on the mRNA platform, viral vector, inactivated viral vaccines), such vaccines should not be used interchangeably.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Nation Health, Medical Aid and Health Insurance Mykhailo Radutskyi (Servant of the People faction) said that the delivery of the next batch of CoviShield vaccine to Ukraine may be postponed for a certain period.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees no reason to refuse the vaccine against the coronavirus AstraZeneca (CoviShield).

On February 24, Ukraine started vaccination against coronavirus with the AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine, on March 17, the Ministry of Health increased the interval between the introduction of the first and second doses of the CoviShield coronavirus vaccine from 28 to 90 days.