Rio de Janeiro, Jan. 19, (dpa/GNA) – Brazil started its nationwide coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday, just a day after an emergency authorization for the SinoVac and AstraZeneca jabs.
The campaign kicked off in ten states, the country’s Jornal Nacional programme from broadcaster TV Globo reported.
The launch was plagued by complications, partly because the government in Brasilia decided at short notice under public pressure to start vaccinations earlier than originally planned.
The country’s national health monitor, Anvisa, only granted the emergency authorization on Sunday.
According to Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, vaccinations were supposed to begin five days after that.
Brazil, a country of 210 million people, has around 6 million doses of the Sinovac jab available, as the state of Rio de Janeiro made a deal with the Chinese manufacturer.
President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly expressed disdain towards the Chinese vaccine, but his government turned to Sinovac after efforts to import 2 million doses of the AztraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine from India failed.
The state governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, is retaining around 1.5 million doses as allowed by law, the other 4.5 million are being doled out by the government.
Health workers, over-60s in care homes and Indigenous people in protected areas are being prioritized to receive the jab.
Official figures show around 8.5 million people in Brazil have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic started. More than 210,000 have died.
Due to the drastic increase in acute cases, the health system in Manaus in the Amazon region recently collapsed, with oxygen having to be airlifted into the metropolis.
GNA