UAH 46.4 billion (US$ 1.6B) was spent from Ukraine's state budget in 2021 to fight COVID-19, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry has said.
In 2021, the total expenditures of the state budget to combat the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to UAH 46.4 billion. Last year, these funds were used to pay for emergency and inpatient care provided to patients with COVID-19, as well as services to vaccinate the population from COVID-19 (UAH 22.4 billion or US$ 794M), for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines (UAH 11.4 billion or US$ 404M), to provide hospitals with oxygen, diagnostic equipment, rapid tests and consumables for testing (UAH 2.5 billion or US$ 88.6M), for surcharges to doctors' salaries (UAH 0.5 billion or US$ 17.7M), etc, Ukrinform reports.
"Last year, the Ministry of Finance found opportunities to finance all measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we have enough different types of vaccines to meet the current needs for vaccination, including booster doses. After all, vaccination prevents the severe course of this disease, which also reduces the burden on the health care system as a whole and allows it to better meet the various medical needs of citizens," said Deputy Finance Minister Roman Yermolychev.
