What did Ukraine's first COVAX deliveries mean on 16 April 2021?
A look back at the day Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccines arrived through the global sharing initiative.
What did it mean for Ukraine when vaccines began arriving through COVAX? On 16 April 2021, the country received its first batch of the Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech under the global initiative, as reported at the time.
The same day, Ukraine also received 117,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX. The deliveries meant that the vaccine-sharing scheme, rather than only bilateral purchases, was supplying the country's COVID-19 response with two different products.
A day of other pressures
The vaccine news came a day after Ukraine protested an alleged Russian announcement. According to that report of 15 April 2021, Russia would close the Kerch Strait to foreign warships and state ships from the following week until October. The protest was part of the wider strain in Russia–Ukraine relations.
What the arrivals showed
The arrival of Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca doses on a single date showed COVAX acting as a channel for more than one vaccine. The quantity of the first Comirnaty batch was not reported at the time in the material available here, so the scale of that delivery is left aside. The 117,000 AstraZeneca doses are the only figure that can be set out for 16 April 2021.
