Brazil’s May vaccination rate 16.5% lower than in April

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In May, the Ministry of Health received 6.2 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses compared to April. There were 25.9 million doses available in April compared to 32.2 million this month. However, the vaccination rate in May was 16.5% lower than in April.

Between April 1 and 30, about 821,916 daily doses were administered, according to a survey conducted by VEJA based on data from the Ministry of Health, the State Secretariats, and Coronavirus Brazil. In the same period in May, the daily average stood at 686,098 shots.

This also means that, in absolute figures, fewer doses were administered in May than in April: 20.5 million (May), against 24.6 million (April). The largest shortfall occurred in the second dose administration. In April, 10.6 million Brazilians were fully immunized against Covid-19 when they were administered the second dose of a vaccine. In May, there were only 6.4 million.

In the state of São Paulo, the most populous in Brazil, more than 500,000 are late in completing the vaccination schedule. The total includes 212,403 people who have not taken the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has a 12-week interval between doses, and another 289,290 referring to CoronaVac, which has a 28-day interval between shots.

People who did not return for their second dose may have influenced the drop in administrations, but the main reasons behind the reduction in doses administered last month are the slow delivery and distribution of vaccines, both by the federal government and by states. In general, vaccine suppliers – the Butantan Institute, Fiocruz and Pfizer – deliver weekly to the Ministry of Health. The portfolio then distributes the received doses to states, and state secretariats distribute to municipalities. All these logistics take time to be completed.

For instance, the Butantan Institute delivered the last batch of CoronaVac doses to the Ministry of Health on May 14. These doses have now reached states and municipalities. However, Fiocruz recently made its latest deliveries for the month of May. There were 5.9 million doses last Friday, May 28, and another 600,000 doses on Monday, May 31. These vaccines, which total 6.5 million doses, are still in the distribution process and should only reach Brazilians in June.

There is also a delay in the administration of vaccines by some municipal health secretariats themselves. According to federal government data, in the state of Bahia, 77% of doses distributed to municipalities have been administered. In the state of Acre, this rate drops to 60.7%.