Covid-19 News: Brazil Receives Coronavac API; AstraZeneca Efficacy; Mexico Authorizes Sputnik V Vaccine

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil registered 1,240 Covid-19 deaths between Tuesday, February 2nd, and Wednesday, February 3rd, according to a survey conducted by a Brazilian media outlet consortium. Thus, the total number of deaths by the novel coronavirus now stands at 226,383.

The rolling average of new deaths in Brazil over the past week reached 1,066 per day, an 8% increase over the data recorded in 14 days, according to figures compiled by the press.

Confirmed cases total 9,286,256, of which 56,240 diagnoses were recorded between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the balance closed at 8 PM yesterday.

The average of new cases over the past seven days stands at 50,095 per day, a drop of 8% compared to cases registered in 14 days.

Coronavac Active Ingredient Arriving in Brazil

The São Paulo government announced that the aircraft carrying 5,400 liters of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) for the local production of over 8.6 million vaccine doses had departed from China bound for Brazil and would land yesterday at 11:30 PM.

“This is the first raw material batch that the Butantan is receiving this year. The cargo will be enough for around 8.6 million doses that will be bottled, packaged and labeled in the capital”, reports the São Paulo government.

Butantan Institute Director Dimas Covas said that the vaccines produced with the raw material arriving this week will begin to be delivered to the Ministry of Health on February 25th. Another load with 5,600 liters of the API will also reach Brazil by February 10th, enabling the production of over 8.7 million doses in São Paulo.

In total, the new shipments will enable the production of an additional 17.3 million doses, which will be delivered as of the end of this month. The immunizers are part of the National Immunization Plan (PNI), which distributes them across Brazil. The Butantan expects that local production capacity of vaccines against Covid-19 will reach 600,000 daily doses.

Oxford and AstraZeneca Vaccine Effective after First Dose

Researchers at Oxford University announced today that the Covid-19 vaccine, developed jointly with AstraZeneca, has a substantial effect on reducing virus transmission after the first dose. The information is provided by the Dow Jones news agency.

These are preliminary data and have not yet been peer reviewed. Several scientists outside the University said that the data was insufficient to draw final conclusions.

Nevertheless, this is the first study to demonstrate that a vaccine may be able to slow the spread of the disease, not only prevent people from developing its symptoms.

All major western vaccines now used worldwide have proved effective at several levels in preventing people from falling ill. Scientists hope to reduce asymptomatic transmission too.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said today that the fact that the vaccine slows transmission “is good news for the whole world”.

Oxford University stated that the vaccine can reduce symptomatic transmission of the virus by 67%, based on positive swab tests of volunteers vaccinated after a single dose, although these swab tests have only been performed in the UK.

The data, published on the Lancet website, showed that the efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 was well sustained in 76%, within 22 days after the first dose and up to 90 days thereafter.

Some independent researchers said that it is difficult to draw a full conclusion from the results due to the study’s limitations. A higher number of younger volunteers were administered the two-dose vaccine over longer intervals between jabs, which may have distorted the results, said Azra Ghani, from the infectious disease epidemiology course at Imperial College London.

Similarly, scientists cautioned that the apparent effect on transmission left much room for the virus to spread among asymptomatic individuals, even after vaccination. Government officials and health experts warned that vaccines will not be a panacea to prevent the spread of the virus.

The data are based on December results and include data from over 17,000 volunteers in final stage trials conducted in Oxford in the UK, Brazil and South Africa.

The findings are similar to a study by UK government advisors and regulators, upon which they based their policy of distributing vaccines to reach more people quickly with the first doses. At the time, UK officials said that, after three weeks, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was approximately 70% effective up to the second dose, even if administered 12 weeks later.

Study subjects showed 82.4% efficacy after being administered two doses at 12-week intervals, compared with only 54.9% if the doses were spaced at less than six weeks.

Additional data are based on results up to December 7th and do not cover efficacy levels against the most recent strains found in the UK and South Africa.

The data in the coming days should shed light on how well the vaccine is protecting against the rapidly spreading virus strains.

Efficacy in the elderly

However, the additional data do not significantly contribute to findings on vaccine efficacy in the elderly. Independent researchers have criticized the lack of results for the vaccine in adults over 55.

Oxford researchers said older volunteers were recruited later for safety reasons and said ongoing testing should provide more information.

Mexico

The Russian Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Mexico for emergency use with no additional clinical trials on Mexican territory, the Russian Federation’s Sovereign Fund announced today, which is coordinating the development of the vaccine.

Mexico is thus the 17th country to authorize the vaccine’s use, amid the countries’ race for doses against the pandemic. In Latin America, the Sputnik V has already been given the green light by Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

In a statement, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), welcomed the Mexican regulatory agencies’ positive decision to register the Sputnik V and its inclusion in the national portfolio of anti-coronavirus drugs.

“The partnership between Russia and Mexico will help save lives and protect populations thanks to one of the best vaccines in the world whose high efficacy was proven the day before through the publication of data in the most respected medical journal, The Lancet,” he said.