The IEC during COVID-19: how the exhibition centre became a mass vaccination site

2020 and plans for a temporary hospital

In spring 2020, Kyiv, like other cities, was trying to prepare for the spread of the epidemic. One of the main questions was rather alarming: what should be done if hospitals ran out of beds for patients?

On 30 March, Ihor Liski, coordinator of Kyiv’s volunteer headquarters for fighting the spread of the coronavirus, spoke about the possibility of using the IEC to accommodate patients. An interview with Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian) described a plan for seven thousand beds in case existing hospital capacity proved insufficient.

It sounds ambitious. But setting up beds in a large pavilion is not enough to turn it into a hospital. Ventilation, drainage, oxygen supply and other technical conditions had to be planned. Liski himself stressed that these issues needed to be worked out in advance, even if the reserve site was never needed.

So the reports of 2020 concerned preparations for a possible scenario. The IEC’s real and well-known medical role came later: mass vaccination, organised the following year.

The vaccination centre opens on 29 May 2021

At the end of May 2021, the IEC’s fourth building began receiving people who wanted to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The centre was located at the address familiar to the complex’s visitors: 15 Brovarskyi Avenue.

On opening day, 16 vaccination teams were working here. Each consisted of a registrar, a doctor and a nurse. The medics had completed special training beforehand, and an ambulance crew was on duty at the site in case emergency care was needed. The organisation of the work was reported by the Kyiv Health Department (in Ukrainian).

At the start, the CoronaVac vaccine was used. Vaccination was offered to Kyiv residents who had registered in the Diia app. They were asked to bring documents and a phone to confirm their booking.

For the IEC, this meant a different way of handling visitors. A person had to register, talk to the medics and receive the vaccine. The large pavilion made it possible to accommodate several teams at once, but the whole process depended on people working together smoothly.

The first weekend and thousands wanting to be vaccinated

On the very first day, 1,395 people were vaccinated at the IEC. The figure was published by the city authorities (in Ukrainian) on the evening of 29 May. The next day, the number of people wanting a vaccine was even higher.

Over the first weekend, 29–30 May, the centre administered 3,467 vaccinations: 1,395 on Saturday and 2,072 on Sunday. As The Village Ukraine (in Ukrainian) reported, long queues formed outside the IEC on 30 May.

Behind these figures was a perfectly understandable interest: people wanted to take the chance to get vaccinated. On the first weekend, vaccines were given to anyone registered in Diia, not only to priority groups. Later, the procedure for invitations and booking was refined.

The queues also revealed the organisational side of mass vaccination. Opening a large centre was only the beginning. The number of doses, the work of medical teams and the flow of visitors all had to be coordinated so that the wish to get vaccinated did not turn into hours of waiting.

From weekends only to daily appointments

At first, the vaccination centre at the IEC operated at weekends. But by early July, the city decided to extend its hours.

From 5 July 2021, the centre switched to daily operation. The schedule at the time provided for appointments from 10:00 to 17:30. The change was announced by the Kyiv City Council (in Ukrainian).

At the same time, advance booking via Helsi.me was being developed. It allowed people to choose a date and time, and helped medical staff plan their workload. The Health Department specifically asked people with bookings to arrive on time: a missed appointment meant both a wasted wait for the medics and a lost opportunity for someone else.

By now, this was daily work with its own schedule, booking system and constant flow of visitors. Kyiv residents had more options to choose a convenient time, rather than being limited to Saturday and Sunday.

How vaccination conditions changed

Over the summer of 2021, it was not only the opening hours that changed. Access to vaccination widened, other vaccines became available, and booking rules were refined.

From 22 July, the centre at the IEC offered the CoronaVac/Sinovac Biotech and Spikevax Moderna vaccines. Appointments could be booked via Helsi.me. This happened as Ukraine opened the fifth stage of vaccination, when eligibility was extended regardless of occupational or age risk group. These changes were announced by the city Health Department (in Ukrainian).

At the same time, the IEC was part of the city’s vaccination network. Vaccines were also given in medical facilities, additional sites were set up, and mobile teams were at work. The large centre near Livoberezhna made it possible to receive a large number of people in one place, while district sites brought vaccination closer to home.

!These rules, the list of vaccines and the opening hours belong to the history of 2021. They explain how the centre worked at the time and are not a current schedule of medical services at the IEC.

The IEC in the life of the city during the pandemic

Exhibition centres are usually discussed in terms of pavilion space, number of exhibitors and the scale of events. The pandemic added another dimension: how quickly a large space can become useful to the city in unusual circumstances.

The IEC had premises for receiving many people. Medics carried out the vaccinations, city services organised the centre’s work, and booking systems helped keep visits orderly. This is how an exhibition pavilion became one of the key locations of Kyiv’s vaccination campaign.

For some, this period was their first encounter with the IEC. Not through a professional forum or a concert, but through a personal decision to get vaccinated. In the complex’s history, it is as concrete an episode as international meetings or a major TV show: with an opening date, daily work and thousands of visitors.