Ukraine is awaiting confirmation from COVAX for the delivery of the vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, with final confirmation expected on January 29.

According to a press release of the Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation, Deputy Health Minister, Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said this during an open discussion "Vaccination. Corruption. COVID-19: Open Discussion" on Wednesday.

"According to preliminary agreements, Ukraine expects 16 million doses of vaccine from COVAX. The vaccine purchased for the national budget is also expected. Now state-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine expects a portfolio from Sinovac, which will indicate accurate data on its effectiveness," he said.

According to Liashko's forecasts, the vaccine will appear in the retail network no earlier than the second half of 2021.

Liashko said it is planned to vaccinate the population in the country during 2021-2022. Vaccinations will start on February.

In turn, Director of the e-health development department of the National Health Service of Ukraine Dmytro Chernysh said that he plans to purchase medical vaccination services as part of a separate package of regulatory documents, a draft of which has already been submitted to the Health Ministry.

"According to him, the National Health Service will pay health care institutions for vaccinations against COVID-19. Accordingly, the principle of 'money follows the patient' will be preserved," he said.

Representatives of the World Bank in Ukraine Olena Doroshenko and Dmytro Donets said that according to preliminary agreements, the World Bank plans to provide Ukraine with a loan of $90 million to support measures to counter COVID-19, namely to provide vaccines and testing from COVID-19. At the same time, for the World Bank the priority is to properly account for vaccines procured by the country under this loan.