Brazil Expects to Receive Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine This Week

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a press conference in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, Health Minister Pazuello reported that a plane was flying to India to collect two million doses of the vaccine developed by Oxford University in partnership with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company, produced by Serum, an Indian laboratory.

According to the Minister, the vaccines should land in Brazil on Saturday, January 16th, the day before the meeting of the National Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA), to decide on the emergency use of two vaccines against Covid-19, which has already caused some 205.000 deaths and 8.2 million infections in Brazil.

“It’s time to travel and bring [the vaccines], they already have the export documents ready,” Pazuello said. “As soon as there is a positioning by ANVISA, we will have supplies for distribution and capacity to vaccinate the whole country,” he added.

To begin immunization, the Brazilian government has eight million doses of vaccines, two million of which were developed by AstraZeneca/Oxford University and six million of the Coronavac, another vaccine produced by the Butantan Institute in partnership with the Chinese Sinovac laboratory.

Both vaccines have been described as “very promising” by the Minister of Health and are awaiting emergency use authorization by the regulatory agency, which should announce its decision on these applications next Sunday.

“We are and have always been the country that most immunizes in the world. We are the country with the largest immunization program in the world. (…) We didn’t stray from our path for a single minute,” emphasized Pazuello, who was in Manaus because of the emergency situation the city is experiencing for the second time in less than ten months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following ANVISA approval, the Brazilian Ministry of Health plans to begin distributing the national vaccination campaign doses against Covid-19 within “three or four days”, so that immunization may begin on January 20th, according to the Government’s most “optimistic” estimates.

Pazuello also highlighted that Manaus is the “national priority” at this time, although he did not clarify whether the Amazonas capital will be prioritized in receiving the vaccines.

“No one will receive the vaccine before Manaus. The vaccine will be distributed simultaneously to all states, in proportion to their population. And Manaus will also be a priority,” the Minister said.

With a population of some four million, the state of Amazonas totals nearly 6.000 deaths and over 215.000 Covid-19 infections. The city of Manaus currently records its highest hospitalization rate for the disease since the start of the pandemic in the country last February.

Consequently, Pazuello yesterday assured that 180 healthcare professionals will be hired and that 150 intensive care beds in hospitals, which are used to treat patients in a critical condition, will be provided for patients in the city, which has already been equipped with 198 oxygen cylinders to supply ventilators.