RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The nominee for the Health portfolio, physician Marcelo Queiroga, said that Brazil “will begin the largest immunization program against covid-19 in the country.” He made the comment at an event on March 17th in Rio de Janeiro.
Along with the current Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, Queiroga is attending the ceremony to receive the first doses of the Oxford vaccine, manufactured by Fiocruz at the Bio-Manguinhos facility in Rio de Janeiro. Also present are Fiocruz president Nísia Trindade and Bio-Manguinhos director Mauricio Zuma.
The 500,000-dose batch was produced from imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and will be used to increase the vaccination of Brazilians against Covid-19.
In his speech at the ceremony, broadcast online, Queiroga said he has been assigned the mission of being Health Minister, “a mission of great importance, which one can’t handle alone.” In his speech, the minister referred to the state and municipal health secretaries as a “shock troop to remain united.”
“Only with the help of all Brazilians and the health system can we give the answers that Brazil wants to hear,” he said in his speech at the event.
Queiroga also stated that only through dialogue and science will it be possible to find the solutions that Brazil needs amid the Covid-19 pandemic that began in March last year.
“The government administration’s motto is Brazil above everything and God above all. That is why we always ask for the blessing of Dom Orani [Tempesta],” he added, quoting the Roman Catholic bishop of Rio de Janeiro, also present at the event.
On the event’s agenda, Queiroga and Pazuello are scheduled to visit the vaccine manufacturing site before following the departure of the doses from the plant. After the visit, a virtual press conference is scheduled, with the presence of Nísia Trindade, Mauricio Zuma, Pazuello and Queiroga.
Source: Valor