Ukraine signed a contract for additional 10 million doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, expected to be shipped in 2021, the country's Health Minister Maxym Stepanov announced on Saturday.
"After long and difficult negotiations with Pfizer, we have reached an agreement on the shipment of additional 10 million doses. We signed the contract overnight. In total, we will receive 20 million (to be exact, 20.115 million) doses of the Pfizer vaccine during this calendar year," Stepanov posted on Facebook.
According to the minister, the negotiations with the US vaccine manufacturer began last August and finally showed progress after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held personal talks with the company CEO Albert Bourla. Zelensky inked the deal for 10 million Pfizer shots, with the first deliveries expected to start over the next few weeks.
Ukraine will receive shipments of the first 500 thousand doses in May-June, another 4.5 million doses in July-September, and the remaining 15 million doses in the fourth quarter of this year.
Stepanov stressed that the government expects to immunize 70% of the population by year-end.
The first plane carrying a batch of 117,000 doses of Pfizer arrived in Ukraine on April 16 as part of the COVAX vaccine-sharing mechanism.
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