Rio City Hall says vaccine stocks will last only until Saturday

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The vaccination schedule in the city of Rio de Janeiro is in danger of being suspended due to a shortage of immunizers. According to the Municipal Health Secretariat, doses for immunization in stock are only available until next Saturday, February 13th, the date on which seniors aged 85 or older are scheduled to be immunized.

“The Municipal Health Secretariat is expecting the arrival of new doses as of next week. Should this delivery fail, the schedule will be interrupted until the arrival of new doses,” reads an excerpt from the note sent by the portfolio on Thursday, February 11th.

Also according to the Secretariat, new shipments of the CoronaVac vaccine are expected next week – the portfolio did not specify the date -, and the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s immunizer on February 23rd.

Other cities in the Rio Metropolitan Region, such as Niterói and São Gonçalo, have interrupted the campaign due to vaccine shortages.

In Salvador, Health Secretary Léo Prates also announced the suspension of immunization for healthcare professionals and the deferment of the vaccination campaign for seniors under 85 years of age until new doses arrive, scheduled for next Monday, February 15th.

The Ministry of Health has not yet confirmed the delivery of new doses to Rio, nor when it would occur.

However, on Tuesday, February 9th, the State Health Secretariat began distributing 131,100 CoronaVac doses to the 92 municipalities in the state. On the same date, 50,000 doses were delivered to the state capital.

The municipal body has not clarified whether this batch is enough to sustain the campaign only until Saturday or to extend it to next week.

Currently, the capital is vaccinating the elderly in general against Covid-19 – following an age-based schedule – and healthcare professionals aged 60 or older, with appropriate certification, who work in the city in the public and private hospital networks.

Second week
86 year olds: February 11th;
85 year olds: February 12th;
Repeat for those aged 85 and over: February 13th (Saturday).

Third week

The city government is also immunizing healthcare professionals aged 60 and older, with appropriate certification, in the following categories:

social workers;
biologists;
biomedical;
nurses;
pharmacists;
physiotherapists;
speech therapists;
funeral parlors employees who have contact with potentially infected cadavers;
veterinarians and their respective technicians and assistants;
physicians;
nutritionists;
odontologists;
physical education professionals;
psychologists;
occupational therapists.