RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil registered this Saturday, May 22, 1,899 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, amid alerts from specialists about the possible arrival of a third wave of the pandemic due to the increase in transmission.
According to the latest bulletin of the Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths due to coronavirus rose to 446,309. In addition, the number of cases reached 15.9 million, after counting 76,855 infections in the last 24 hours.
The number of infections has rebounded in recent weeks following the end of the social distancing measures imposed by governors and mayors to curb cases, and the slow vaccination process in the country.
The concern of specialists has increased in recent days after the first cases of the Indian variant were detected in the country, a strain that was identified in several crew members of a ship from Malaysia, which had been isolated since last weekend in the port of São Luis, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão.
One of the crew members, 54 years old, was intubated and is in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after worsening his health condition.
BRAZIL RECEIVES RAW MATERIAL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MORE DOSES
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) received May 23 enough raw material to produce 12 million doses of the Covid vaccine.
Fiocruz, responsible for the manufacture in Brazil of the immunizer developed by the laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, interrupted the production of the antigen three days ago due to the shortage of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).
With the arrival of the API shipment from China, Fiocruz will be able to resume production of the vaccines in the coming days, when immunization is proceeding at a slow pace in the country.
The Butantan Institute, in charge of the local production of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, also has its machines stopped due to the lack of API, of which 3,000 liters, enough for 5 million doses, are expected to arrive next Tuesday.
Five months after the start of immunization in Brazil, only about 20% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while the percentage is around 10% for those who have completed the two doses.