RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At a press conference held at the Butantan Institute on Tuesday, February 23rd, governor João Doria announced the start of new shipments of novel coronavirus vaccine doses to the Ministry of Health’s National Immunization Program. In total, there will be 5.6 million doses between February 5th and March 5th, 65% more than the initially planned amount.
“The Butantan Institute is the current leader in vaccine distribution in the country. Brazil will receive 46 million doses of the vaccine by April 30th and another 54 million doses of the Butantan vaccine by August 30th. By August 30th we will have delivered 100 million doses of the Butantan vaccine,” said governor João Doria.
This Tuesday, February 23rd, the Butantan Institute would distribute 1.2 million doses, and on Wednesday, February 24th, another 900,000 vaccine vials will be delivered. A further 600,000 daily doses are scheduled for delivery on February 25th, 26th and 28th. Accordingly, from today through Sunday, São Paulo will supply a total of 3.9 million doses to the National Immunization Program.
In early March, the Butantan Institute will supply another 1.7 million doses for national immunization, with 600,000 doses planned for March 2nd, 500,000 for March 4th, and another 600,000 for March 5th. In total, there will be 5.6 million vials supplied between today and March 5th.
The Butantan had already delivered 1.1 million doses on February 5th. Hence, in only one month, between February 5th and March 5th, the institute will supply a total of 6.7 million vaccines. Combined with the 8.7 million batch delivered in January, this amounts to 15.4 million doses to vaccinate Brazilians all over the country.
The doses shipped today are part of the batch of immunizers bottled at the Butantan with the Active Pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sent by China’s Sinovac Life Science.
The institute has now supplied 90% of all vaccines used in the country’s public network and has been setting up a task force to quickly package doses for delivery to the National Immunization Program. One of the Butantan’s efforts involved doubling its staff in order to meet this moment’s pressing needs.
Vaccination in São Paulo
The state of São Paulo passed the 2 million mark of coronavirus vaccinations at 6:17 PM last Sunday, February 21st.
On Tuesday morning, the Vacinômetro reported 2,070,00 vaccines administered, of which 1,665,803 were for the first dose and another 407,237 for the second dose. Vaccination by municipality can be monitored in real-time on the Government website: https://vacinaja.sp.gov.br/vacinometro/.
Source: O Governo de São Paulo