Kiev, Apr 16 (IANS): Ukraine started vaccinating national athletes of Olympic and Paralympic teams with CoronaVac vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, the country's health ministry said.

"We want all athletes to attend the competitions without any restrictions, (and) we want to see the Ukrainian flag, hear the Ukrainian national anthem and be proud of the victories of our athletes.

Paralympians and Olympians are the pride and hope of the country. Our task is to protect their health and life," Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

The vaccination is voluntary, and athletes feel good after the vaccination, Stepanov added.

Ukraine's National Sports Medicine Center chief Viacheslav Chernenko said athletes put much hope at CoronaVac and believe it would help to stop the virus.

"We have the plan to vaccinate 750 persons of Olympic and Paralympic delegations going to Tokyo Olympic Games. We have 1,500 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine synthesized by Sinovac Biotech China," Chernenko told Xinhua on Thursday.

"China has been doing very well in terms of financing the laboratory activities. And it has been vaccinating the people at high paste. I hope Ukraine would be able to do the same," said Chernenko.

Vaccinations with the CoronaVac vaccine started in Ukraine on Tuesday after it was officially registered on March 9.

Stepanov said that the first batch of CoronaVac vaccines arrived in the country on March 25, while the remaining doses will be delivered in April-May.

Covid-19 cases have been growing in Ukraine over the past month against the backdrop of the vaccination campaign that started on Feb. 24.

As of Thursday, 1,903,765 Covid-19 cases and 38,658 deaths have been registered in Ukraine, while 1,453,766 patients have recovered, according to the health authorities.