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Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said that there are “one, two or three” options for laboratories that develop vaccines against Covid-19 with sufficient quantity and a good schedule to meet the needs of Brazil.
Pazuello also said that 15 million doses of vaccine should arrive in the country by early 2021.
“In January and February 15 million doses of this technological order from AstraZeneca and Oxford with Fiocruz are already arriving. And in the first semester we will reach a hundred million doses. In the second semester, with the technology transferred ready, we will be able to Produce up to 160 million doses with Fiocruz. There are only 260 million doses. “
The minister participated this Wednesday morning (2) in a public hearing in the joint commission of Congress, which monitors actions to face the new coronavirus and budget execution during the pandemic.
He said there was a lot of publicity related to vaccines, but the proposals proved insufficient after scrutiny.
“Still on vaccines, I wanted to make one thing clear: it was very obvious that there are very few manufacturers that have the quantity and effective delivery schedule for our country. When we got to the end of the negotiations and went to the delivery schedule, the numbers are in short supply, “he said.” Large numbers [de vacinas] they really boil down to one, two, or three ideas. Most have very small numbers for our country. “
The minister left the hearing earlier, claiming to have been summoned by President Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) to attend a meeting linked to the PPI (Investment Alliances Program), linked to the Ministry of Economy.
In recent weeks, representatives of the Ministry of Health have received the main laboratories that develop vaccines against Covid-19 for meetings.
For now, Brazil maintains guaranteed agreements to obtain 142 million doses of vaccines in the first half, 100 million of which are the result of an alliance between Fiocruz and the AstraZeneca laboratory and another 42 million planned in the Covax Facility consortium.
“One thing we must notice is that there is a very strong campaign, production, sales competition, advertising campaign. So a production company launches an advertising campaign that it has already done, it’s ready, it’s wonderful. When you press, the story is very different, like everything in life, “said the minister.
“When you go shopping, you choose, you don’t have what you want, the price is not that and the quality is not that. So when we push, the options decrease a lot, ”he added.
On Tuesday afternoon, the ministry launched an initial plan for the vaccination of the Brazilian population, which will be divided into four stages.
The first to receive the vaccine, probably starting in March, are health professionals, people over 75 years of age, the indigenous population and those who live in nursing homes or psychiatric institutions and are over 60 years old.
In the second phase, people ages 60 to 74 should be vaccinated.
The next stage, the third, provides for the immunization of people with comorbidities who are at higher risk of worsening the disease. At this stage, it is not possible to measure, based on official demographic statistics, how many people can benefit.
The fourth and final stage should include teachers, security and rescue forces, prison officials and the population deprived of liberty.
