Brazil’s health ministry expects to have at least 150m doses of vaccines against Covid-19 available in the first half of 2021, with a third or more coming from a Chinese company despite the president’s early scepticism.
Arnaldo Medeiros, a health ministry official, also told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that an initial deal to acquire 46m doses of vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech could soon be expanded to 100m.
The Sao Paulo state government’s Butantan Institute is expected to present data from its late-stage trial of the Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac, on Wednesday, which has already begun rolling off its fill-and-finish production line.
President Jair Bolsonaro had snubbed that vaccine, citing doubts about its “origin” and trading barbs with Sao Paulo governor João Doria, a political rival.
But the health ministry has been eager to secure supplies as the global rush for vaccines heats up.
The federal government’s Fiocruz biomedical centre is also expected to begin fill-and-finish of the AstraZeneca vaccine in coming months, delivering the first shots on 8 February. The ministry expects 104m doses by June, officials said.
Separately, the ministry is in talks with Pfizer to receive 8m doses of the vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech in the first half of 2021.
No Covid-19 vaccine has been approved yet for use in Brazil. The Pfizer/BioNTech shot has been authorised in several countries, including the US, the UK and Canada.
Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly played down the severity of the pandemic, has said he will not take any vaccine, stoking broader scepticism toward the shots among Brazilians. Brazil’s public health authorities, however, have said they will use any vaccine approved by regulators.
On Tuesday Brazil registered 55,202 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 7,318,821. Deaths rose by 968 to 188,259.
