Brazil began distributing about 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, Brazilian health officials announced.
According Reuters, The Fiocruz Institute, funded by the federal government, said it began distributing the vaccine after doses arrived from India on Friday.
While the Brazilian government currently has an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce up to 100 million doses of its vaccine locally, the country recently faced delays from China in delivering the active ingredient needed to produce the vaccine.
AstraZeneca has agreed to give Brazil 2 million ready-to-use doses made in India for the government to start distributing the vaccine to its citizens, Reuters reported.
The distribution is because Brazil, so far, has relied on the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, which health officials in Brazil said last week. just over 50 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, an efficacy rate that is much lower than the 78 percent of employees in São Paulo previously estimated.
However, São Paulo The Butantan Institute claims that Chinese inoculation remains 100 percent effective in preventing “severe” or “moderate” coronavirus infections, while mild or very mild infections remain possible after receiving the injection.
Brazil had the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, with more than 216,000 as of Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The South American country also ranks third in total infections, with more than 8.8 million reported.
The UK earlier this month became the first country to start administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University. India and Pakistan also approved the use of inoculation.
The trial data revealed that the AstraZeneca vaccine had a 62 percent efficacy rate if given in two full doses 28 days apart, as it was for most participants. However, the vaccine was found to be 90 percent effective when a small group in the study mistakenly received a half dose initially followed by a full dose.
Given the issues surrounding the trial data, US health experts initially predicted that it would take months to receive emergency approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine, however Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciAstraZeneca begins the distribution of the vaccine in Brazil Biden and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom discuss NATO, multilateralism during Sunday’s conference call preview: All eyes on the Biden administration to fight the coronavirus MORE, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said last week that approval of the injection, like that of Johnson & Johnson, was probably “in a few weeks”.