RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A federal court in Manaus has suspended the distribution there of the vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Oxford University, in partnership with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The suspension should be in force until the city prepares a vaccination plan in conformity with the Ministry of Health’s national plan.
In her decision, taken on Tuesday, January 26th, Judge Jaiza Maria Pinto Fraxe, of the 1st Civil District Court of Amazonas, states that distribution in Manaus may be restored “provided that the priority rules already established across the country are observed, and there may be no privileges or misuses of any kind, thus causing offenders to be imprisoned in the event of flagrante delicto, in accordance with the law.”
After the decision, the Amazonas government announced it had interrupted the distribution of all 132,500 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it received on Saturday, January 23rd. However, on Wednesday night the state executive said that, in a new judicial order, the magistrate clarified that the interruption was to occur only in Manaus, and distribution should continue in the state’s other municipalities.
The judge’s decision was made after the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) opened an investigation into potential fraud in the allocation of the CoronaVac vaccine in Manaus, the first to be distributed in Amazonas. Two doctors recently appointed to administrative positions in a basic health unit were among the first immunized in the capital of Amazonas.
According to the National Immunization Plan, the priority groups to be vaccinated at this first moment are healthcare professionals, particularly those working in the front-line of the fight against the pandemic, indigenous villagers and the elderly and disabled living in long-stay institutions.
Prohibition of second dose
The same judge had already ordered that anyone who cut the waiting line in Manaus for vaccination cannot be administered the second dose until those in the priority list are served.
In addition, she ordered the Amazonas’ capital city hall to publish daily – by 10 PM – the list of all people vaccinated in the city.
The magistrate wrote that she had detected “unacceptable irregularities in the administration of immunizers,” such as a hospital that had not yet received any dose of the vaccine, while attorneys and food company owners had already been immunized.