Vaccinations with China's CoronaVac vaccine start in Ukraine

Vaccinations with the CoronaVac vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech started in Ukraine on Tuesday, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.

"The Ministry of Health has completed all testing and laboratory control of the vaccine, and today we are starting the vaccination process using CoronaVac," said the minister during a briefing in Kiev on Tuesday.

Stepanov said that the CoronaVac vaccines will be provided to elderly people and their caretakers as well as social and educational workers, police officers, military personnel, and athletes preparing for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Ukraine officially registered the CoronaVac vaccine on March 9. Stepanov said that the first batch of CoronaVac vaccines arrived in Ukraine on March 25, while the remaining doses will be delivered in April-May.

COVID-19 cases have been growing in Ukraine over the past month against the backdrop of the vaccination campaign that started on Feb. 24.

As of Tuesday, 1,872,785 COVID-19 cases and 37,758 deaths have been registered in Ukraine, while 1,430,234 patients have recovered, according to the health authorities.