OREANDA-NEWS  The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has issued a registration for the Chinese vaccine against coronavirus from Sinovac Biotech company.

The drug was the second after the Covishield vaccine to receive the necessary import and emergency use documents. The first batch of Sinovac Biotech's substance will arrive in Ukraine only on March 15, although, under a contract with the manufacturer, Kiev was supposed to receive the vaccine on March 7. The volume of the first batch and the cost of one dose of the substance have not yet been announced.

Ukraine entered into an agreement to supply a vaccine against coronavirus from the People's Republic of China at the end of December 2020. The country's authorities called different dates for the start of vaccination, but later issued a statement that they were ready to refuse purchases. The reason was the low efficiency of the drug - less than 60 percent. The manufacturer promised to finalize the substance, now its final effectiveness is unknown.

Vaccination against coronavirus in Ukraine began on February 24, 2021. A day earlier, the republic received the first batch of Covishield, which is manufactured in India under a license from AstraZeneca.

According to the latest data, more than 1.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Ukraine. On March 4, the government announced the beginning of the third wave of the spread of the infection.