RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Ministry of Health on Friday urged the Butantan Institute to ” immediately deliver” the six million doses of the CoronaVac that were imported from China and are the subject of an emergency use application submitted to the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), in a letter sent to the institute’s director president Dimas Covas.
“We emphasize the urgency in the immediate delivery of the contracted amounts, considering that this Ministry needs to allocate them in order to start the logistics of distribution to all states of the federation simultaneously and equitably, according to the schedule provided in the National Vaccination Operation Plan against Covid-19”, says the document.
The issue is controversial because the São Paulo government wants to reserve part of the Chinese vaccine’s imported doses to start vaccinating the state’s population once ANVISA grants authorization, which is expected to occur on Sunday.
However, the federal government intends to receive all doses and then distribute them equally to all states.
The Ministry of Health has signed a contract with the Butantan Institute for the purchase of 46 million doses of the CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by Sinovac and produced in Brazil by the São Paulo-based institute. The agreement also provides for the purchase of an additional 56 million doses at a later stage.