He stated this to the publication STRANA.ua.
“It's not a secret for anyone that there is a problem with the supply of vaccines to the country.
This is a problem not only for Ukraine, but for the whole world ... India, the largest vaccine producer in the world, does not export anything now - there is a catastrophe with deaths due to coronavirus, ”he said.
According to him, to date, 3.9 million doses of vaccines should have been delivered to Ukraine under paid contracts, not taking into account the COVAX mechanism.
In fact, Ukraine received 1,199,200 doses of vaccines.
“Therefore, it is not surprising that there are no vaccines at the vaccination points.
We have areas where vaccines have simply run out - for example, Odessa and Kharkov, they lag behind in terms of the number of vaccinated, "- said Stepanov.
The Minister noted that not so long ago the country received a batch of doses of the AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccine as part of the global COVAX initiative and is already being delivered to vaccination points.
“And our Chinese colleagues, according to their official statement, promise to ship another 500,000 doses by April 30, which, after passing laboratory control, will be delivered to vaccination points.
We should also receive 473,000 doses of Pfizer's COVAX vaccine, ”the minister added.
Earlier, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine said that more than 367 thousand doses of the AstraZeneca-SKBio coronavirus vaccine produced in South Korea were delivered to the country.