Brazil's Health Ministry, amid criticism for delaying on D-Day for rolling out the vaccine, said on Wednesday, that the government is negotiating with the Indian government to send chartered planes to collect 2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Brazil Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said the government aims to bring in the vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute, India by Saturday.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro on January 9 had asked India Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speed up the shipment of COVID-19 vaccine. Brazil has been one of the countries to be worst affected by the pandemic. The nation, in the last 24 hours has recorded 60,899 new coronavirus cases, 1,274 new COVID-19 deaths
Brazil's health regulator Anvisa, on Wednesday, said the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in China is barely effective by the 50 per cent. The official death toll of the South American nation due to the virus is 205,964.
Countries including Indonesia, Turkey and Singapore have placed orders for the Sinovac vaccine.
In the meantime, Brazil is testing another vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian pharma company based in Hyderabad. ABCVAC President Geraldo Barbosa said that the private sector's efforts to acquire the Bharat COVAXIN shot wouldn't interfere with the government's efforts to acquire vaccines for the public sector, a Reuters report reads. The vaccine is yet to be approved by Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa.
