São Paulo – The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines supplied by the COVAX Facility program landed in Brazil on Sunday (21) evening. The doses amount to 1.02 million AstraZeneca/Oxford shots that were manufactured by South Korea’s SK Bioscience. They are the same shots produced by Brazil’s biomedical center Fiocruz and approved by health regulator Anvisa.
Brazil’s Ministry of Health reported that the first batch of vaccines from COVAX Facility will be distributed to the states and the Distrito Federal in a proportionate and non-discriminatory manner over the next few days following the National Vaccine Plan. In Brazil, in addition to the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot, the population is also being immunized with the CoronaVac produced by China’s Sinovac lab and São Paulo’s Butantan medical institute. Over 11.8 million people have received the first dose in Brazil.
COVAX is the World Health Organization (WHO)-backed program to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries promoted by U.N. Children’s Fund UNICEF, the GAVI vaccines alliance and others.
According to Brazil’s Ministry of Health, by the end of March another 1.9 million doses from the same manufactured will be received under the global program, which is backed by 150 countries. Brazil reported over 294,000 deaths from COVID-19. Brazil’s daily deaths have reached all-time highs with almost 3,000 deaths a day, and some patients have reportedly died while waiting for hospital beds.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
