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Updated March 2nd, 2021 at 16:20 IST

'Very bad': Ukraine medical facilities threw some COVID vaccines as doctors didn't show up

Ukraine's medical facilities have thrown away some of the unused COVID-19 vaccines after doctors did not show up for their scheduled appointments for jabs.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
Ukraine
| Image:self
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Ukrainian medical facilities have thrown away some of the unused COVID-19 vaccines after doctors did not show up for their scheduled appointments for inoculations, ruling party lawmakers said on March 1. Ukraine had just started its coronavirus vaccination drive for its reportedly 41 million people after it received the first batch of 500,000 doses of Covishield, Indian-made shots of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. However, the country continues to face a battle against vaccine hesitancy that predates the pandemic. 

The Ukrainian government has prioritized the frontline workers to administer the first doses but cited statistics that showed that at least 47% of the citizens do not want the vaccine. Oleksandr Korniyenko, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, told a televised meeting that “It is important for us to understand how all the processes are set up, why doctors refuse to be vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, the head of parliament’s health committee Mykhailo Radutskyi noted that it is ‘bad’ that the authorities have to throw away some of the COVID-19 vaccines but also said: “there is no other option.” He said, “This is very bad, but there is no other option... if a person does not come, it (vaccine bottle) can be kept open for 2-3 hours, after which it must be disposed of.” Ukrainian health ministry data also showed that a total of 3,141 shots were administered on February 28 including 90 shots in 24 hours. 

Read - Pentagon Announces $125M Military Aid For Ukraine

Read - US Reaffirms Crimea Belongs To Ukraine, Says ‘will Never Accept’ Russia’s Annexation

Vaccine hesitancy in Ukraine

Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov not only said that the government was trying to ensure that more COVID-19 vaccines are not thrown away but also added that the same happened in other countries that have begun their vaccination drives. He was vaccinated on camera on Monday and informed that President Volodymyr Zelensky would be taking the jab soon. Stepanov said, “I proved by my own example that the vaccine we are vaccinated with is an absolutely safe vaccine, it is an effective vaccine.”

Same as other nations, vaccine hesitancy among citizens is also one of the issues that governments across the world have to deal with misinformation and a general sense of doubt. Similarly, in Ukraine reportedly a significant part of the population including post-Soviet republics are traditionally wary of vaccines out of fear of side-effects. It was a mistrust of the same kind that allowed the measles outbreak to spread in the country into an outbreak in 2019.

Read - Ukraine: Health Workers Hail Vaccination Drive As COVID Overwhelms Its Health Care System

Read - Ukraine Sees Hospitals Overcrowded With COVID-19
 

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Published March 2nd, 2021 at 16:23 IST

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