Brazil has signed an agreement with Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech to purchase 20 million doses of the Covid-19 Covaxin vaccine, the Reuters news agency reported. The Brazilian Ministry of Health on Thursday signed a contract for delivery between March and May.
The ministry said in a statement that the deal is worth 1.6 billion reais ($ 290,000), with the first 8 million doses expected to arrive in March.
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Brazil recorded 1,541 new deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday, the second highest number of daily deaths since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of deaths to 251,498. With 65,998 new cases, the South American country has already registered 10,390,461 cases, the third worst outbreak in the world, behind only the United States and India.
So far, Brazil has vaccinated less than 4 percent of its population of 210 million people, with some cities stopping immunization campaigns last week due to a lack of vaccines.
– With contributions from the agency