Bolsonaro says Fiocruz will deliver a further 18 million vaccines this month

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday, April 18, on social media that the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) will deliver 18 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19 until the end of April. Of this total, 4.6 million doses will be delivered this week and another 6.7 million next week, according to the president.

On Friday, April 16, Fiocruz delivered another 2.8 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to the National Immunization Program (PNI). In addition to the 2.8 million released on Friday, 2.2 million had been delivered last Wednesday, April 14.

The president also said that the volume of vaccine delivery is expected to increase in the coming months and that Fiocruz should deliver 110 million doses of the vaccine in the second half of 2021.

The president also used social meda to promote a Ministry of Education app aimed at improving child literacy.

According to Bolsonaro, Brazil has most of its schools closed by decision of “governors and mayors” and the country is “among those where educational institutions have been closed the longest” in the world.

Measures to prevent a greater movement of people, such as closing schools and other non-essential activities have been adopted during the pandemic by governors and mayors as a measure to prevent an increase in the number of infections by the virus, which has now reached almost 14 million, with over 370,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic early last year.