KIEV, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 vaccination process started in Ukraine on Wednesday, with 159 citizens receiving the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the press service of the Ministry of Health reported on Thursday.
The vaccination started in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions in central Ukraine. As of Feb. 24, no complaints regarding side effects have been recorded.
Ukraine received the first batch of 500,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine produced at the facilities of the Serum Institute in India was registered for emergency use in Ukraine on Monday. Previously, it was approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, the European Union, Britain and India.
The country's health ministry has already approved a plan for vaccinating the population, under which 50 percent of the population, or more than 20 million people, will get the vaccination in 2021-2022.
A total of 1,325,841 COVID-19 cases and 25,596 deaths have been registered in Ukraine as of Thursday, while 1,159,311 patients have recovered, according to the health authorities. Enditem
