11 May 2021, Tuesday, 13:06 151

SSU Shuts Channel Of Illegal Sale Of Pfizer Vaccine To Other Countries

Даша Зубкова

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has shut down a channel for the illegal sale of fake Pfizer vaccines to other countries.

SSU’s press service has said this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"The SSU has exposed an international criminal group that was selling a fake coronavirus vaccine. The plotters widely advertised their services and claimed that they could supply the vaccine from the American company Pfizer. In fact, they were engaged in fraud and had nothing to do with the original products," says the statement.

The intelligence officers established that the group included citizens of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Taking advantage of the news that the American company Pfizer has officially started deliveries to Ukraine, the scammers decided to make money on this.

On the Internet, they posted an advertisement about the operation of enterprises registered in Ukraine, which allegedly have the ability to supply the vaccine from Pfizer.

To convince customers of the vaccine availability, members of the criminal group provided potential buyers with fake guarantee letters from Ukrainian banks.

Among other things, there were indicated settlement accounts for the transfer of funds, which were opened for the citizens of Ukraine.

The cost of such one fake vaccine was USD 250.

The SSU found out that the plotters worked primarily for clients from the Russian Federation and India - this was where their advertising campaign was targeted to.

The facts of receiving prepayments from "clients" for thousands of dollars were documented.

The SSU, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, exposed the perpetrators and closed the channel for illegal sale of the fake Pfizer vaccine to other countries at the end of April.

Thus, the SSU did not allow the plotters to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the American company Pfizer.

In accordance with the policy of the American company Pfizer Products Inc., the supply of vaccine against COVID-19 is carried out under contracts concluded between the companies of the Pfizer group and the state.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, back in January, the SSU opened a case on the import of contraband vaccine against coronavirus into Ukraine.

On May 10, the number of people vaccinated with the first dose of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine increased 93.7% over May 9 to 1,945.

Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 865,590 people have been vaccinated including 695 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

As of May 10, a total of 531,754 were on the vaccination waiting list.

On May 9, the number of people vaccinated with the first dose of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine decreased 4.8 times over May 8 to 1,004.

On May 10, the number of newly-registered Covid-19 cases in Ukraine rose by 2,208 over May 9 to 2,124,535, and the number of deaths increased by 119 over May 9 to 46,631; at the same time, the number of new cases decreased by 21.6%, and the number of new lethal cases remained at the level of May 9.

According to the report, as of the morning of May 11, a total of 2,124,535 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases were registered in Ukraine; the number included 46,631 fatal cases; 1,777,370 people had recovered.

On May 10, a total of 2,208 new disease cases were recorded, 119 people died, and 8,617 people recovered.

Therefore, as of May 10, the number of newly infected people was lower than that of those who recovered (2,208 vs 8,617).

As of the morning of May 11, the overall number of currently coronavirus-infected people in Ukraine was 300,534, down 2.1% over May 10.

Since the start of the epidemic, the largest number of coronavirus-infected people has been registered in the city of Kyiv (199,175), Kharkiv region (140,770), and Odesa region (136,487).