Brazil on Saturday began distributing the 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine that arrived from India on Friday, reports Reuters.
Why it matters: Brazil has the third highest COVID-19 case count in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The 2 million doses “just scratch the surface of the deficit,” Brazilian public health experts told the AP.
The big picture: Brazil started its vaccination campaign on Monday, according to the New York Times, using the Chinese Sinovac CoronaVac vaccine – which has been shown to be 78% effective in testing in Brazil.
- The Butantan Institute of Brazil, a medical research institute in São Paulo, made available 6 million doses of CoronaVac imported from China and used materials imported from China to bottle 4.8 million additional doses, by AP.
- A flight from India planned for last week has been delayed, undermining Brazil’s plan to start its immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
- The Fiocruz Institute, funded by the federal government, has an agreement to produce up to 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.