The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved today $150 million in Additional Financing for the Ukraine Emergency COVID-19 Response and Vaccination Project, the bank's press service has reported.

These funds will help prevent, detect and respond to the threats posed by COVID-19 and strengthen Ukraine's national public health system, the press service said.

"About $120 million of the additional financing will help the Government of Ukraine purchase 16.5 million doses of vaccines, enough to vaccinate about 20 percent of the population. The procurement of these vaccine doses will also help ensure that 10 million individuals from priority population groups are able to receive full COVID-19 vaccination. The remaining $30 million will finance IT, communications and public outreach, capacity building, as well as cold chain and waste management equipment to strengthen vaccine deployment," the press service said.

"Ukraine still has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe. Scaling-up procurement and deployment of vaccines, combined with measures to detect incidence and address vaccine hesitancy, are critical," World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe Arup Banerji said.

Prior to this, the World Bank provided Ukraine with $155 million to support the health sector's pandemic response, through both the Emergency COVID-19 Response and Vaccination Project and the Serving People, Improving Health Project. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Bank has provided Ukraine with a total of $1.8 billion in budget support and investment projects.