Brazil began distributing nearly 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, Brazilian health officials announced.
According to Reuters, Brazil’s federally funded Fiocruz Institute said it had started distributing the vaccine after the doses arrived from India on Friday.
While the Brazilian government currently has a deal with AstraZeneca to locally produce up to 100 million doses of its vaccine, the country has recently faced delays from China in the supply of the active ingredient needed to produce the vaccine.
AstraZeneca agreed to give Brazil 2 million ready-to-use doses made in India so the government can start distributing the vaccine to its citizens, Reuters reported.
The distribution is because Brazil has relied on the Chinese Sinovac vaccine so far, which health officials in Brazil said last week it slightly more than 50 percent effective in the occurrence of COVID-19, an employment rate much lower than the 78 percent civil servants in São Paulo estimated earlier.
But that of São Paulo Butantan Institute states that the Chinese vaccination remains 100 percent effective in preventing “severe” or “moderate” coronavirus infections, while mild or very mild infections remain possible after receiving the injection.
Brazil has had the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, with more than 216,000 on Saturday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The South American country is also in third place for the total number of infections, with more than 8.8 million reports.
The United Kingdom earlier this month became the first country to begin administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been co-developed with the University of Oxford. India and Pakistan have since also approved the vaccination for use.
Study data showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine has a 62 percent efficacy rate when given in two full doses 28 days apart, as for most participants. However, the vaccine was found to be 90 percent effective when a small group in the trial was incorrectly given half a dose initially, followed by a full dose.
Given the questions surrounding the study data, US health experts initially predicted it would take months to obtain approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciAstraZeneca vaccine distribution begins in Brazil Biden and UK Prime Minister discuss NATO multilateralism on Sunday call shows preview: All eyes on Biden administration to tackle coronavirus MORE, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said last week that approval of the shot, as well as one from Johnson & Johnson, was probably “weeks away”.