Doria says that vaccination against Covid-19 in SP begins on January 25; CoronaVac is not yet approved by Anvisa | Saint Paul

Produced by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac in association with the Butantan Institute, the vaccine is still in the third phase of testing, in which the Efficacy must be proven before being published by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa)..

According to the announcement, each individual will receive two doses. The schedule was divided into five phases and includes the population aged 60 years and over.

People over 75 years of age are also part of the priority group, and will be the second to receive the vaccine. The first dose for this population is expected to occur from February 8.

“Phase 1, which begins on January 25, the anniversary of the city of São Paulo, is the immunization phase that will be aimed at health professionals, all of them, and people over 60 years of age. The public’s choice – objective of this phase 1, taking into account the incidence of deaths from coronavirus in the state of São Paulo ”, said Governor João Doria at a press conference at the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, in the South Zone of the city.

According to the government, 9 million people will be vaccinated in the first phase of the Bell.

“The target audience for the first phase of vaccination is people 60 years of age or older, which correspond to 7.5 million people, health workers, as the governor already mentioned, who are our great front-line agents who save lives. , Quilombolas, indigenous, who are 1.5 million people and the priority is health workers, in a total of 9 million people, “said Regiane de Paula, coordinator of disease control of the State Health Secretariat .

During the press conference, the Secretary of State for Health, Jean Gorinchteyn, the state has the necessary amount of supplies to ensure that the program is carried out as scheduled.

“We will start the vaccination campaign now on January 25 and we do have these supplies, needles and syringes to vaccinate this public. That way, it will not be necessary to make purchases, waiting for bids, because we already have these materials available in our stock”, said the secretary.

Dates of the state immunization program:

According to the government, the state already has 5,200 vaccination posts in the 645 municipalities of São Paulo.

The goal is to expand the total to 10,000 vaccination points, with the possible use of schools, PM barracks, train stations and bus terminals, pharmacies and drive-trhu systems. OR The estimated logistics cost of the program is R $ 100 million..

Logistics and human resources of the first phase

• 18 million doses of the vaccine
• 25 strategic regional storage and distribution positions
• 54 thousand health professionals
• 27 million syringes and needles
• 5.2 thousand cold rooms
• 30 refrigerated trucks for daily distribution
• 2,100 trips during the vaccination period
• 25,000 police officers for vaccination escort and vaccination site security

The government also announced that 4 million doses will be sold to other regions from the field. According to Doria, eight states have already expressed interest.

However, the governor appointed only the elected mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (DEM), and of the city of Curitiba, Rafael Greca (DEM).

“We already have eight states in the country that have requested the CoronaVac vaccine from the Butantan Institute. Some governors have even come here to discuss this matter with us. And to name two mayors among many, but only in honor of the mayor of Curitiba, who requested and has already announced, even in his networks, that he will buy the vaccine for the immunization of Curitibans, and the newly elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes He called me this morning, saying that Rio de Janeiro will not be waiting for the program. Vaccination for the month of March, you will want to vaccinate as soon as possible from health professionals in Rio de Janeiro. And so dozens and dozens of other mayors from other cities, not only from neighboring states, but also from more remote states of our country, “said Doria.

The state health secretary said that he expected CoronaVac to be included in the National Immunization Program, but assured that the state schedule will be maintained, regardless of the dates stipulated by the federal government.

“On January 25, if we can have the federal government on our side, we will be welcome, there is no hostility, no factor preventing us from incorporating the state immunization program into the national immunization program. But if it doesn’t, in São Paulo, on January 25, we will start saving lives in our state with CoronaVac ”.

Gorinchteyn also defended that the vaccine will be aimed at Brazilians, but did not explain how the government of São Paulo intends to do to expand access to the entire population.

“Everyone will be vaccinated, guaranteeing the same protection for everyone. This vaccine is from Butantan, but it is from Brazil. We will not close the border only to Brazilians from São Paulo. We are open to Brazilians from Brazil ”

In order for the vaccine to begin to be distributed, it is necessary for the Butantan Institute to send a report to the Agency and for the agency to approve the use of the immunizer.

According to Butantan, the forecast is for the information to be sent until the end of this week and for Anvisa to decide whether or not CoronaVac meets all the application requirements until the first week of January.

During the press conference, the government also confirmed that the filling of the raw material received last Thursday (3) began on Monday.

On December 1, the federal government released the “preliminary” strategy to vaccinate Brazilians. In the calendar presented, CoronaVac is not mentioned by the Ministry of Health.

In October, the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, even announced in a virtual meeting with more than 23 governors, the purchase of the immunizer, but, less than 24 hours later, the acquisition was unauthorized by President Jair Bolsonaro.

On day 2, Anvisa said that it will accept that companies that develop vaccines against Covid-19 request “emergency use” in Brazil and released the requirements for the request.

“Emergency use” is different from “health registration”, which is full approval for the use of an immunizer. Final registration is dependent on more data and the completion of all vaccine testing steps.

Due to political confrontations, the government of São Paulo made the state vaccination program official, which will be carried out without the support of the federal government.

The São Paulo government has already received 120,000 ready doses of the vaccine, in addition to the supply of supplies that can reach 1 million doses.

The inputs are the “ingredients” necessary for the completion of the vaccine in the country. Butantan will be in charge of completing the final manufacturing stage.

In total, under the agreement closed, Butantan will receive 6 million ready-to-use doses from the Chinese laboratory and will formulate and fill another 40 million doses.

Minimum number of infected

In late November, CoronaVac’s phase 3 study reached the minimum number of people infected with Covid-19 needed to begin the final testing phase.

The step allows the opening of the study and the intermediate analysis of the immunizer results. The expectation is that the data will be published by the São Paulo government in the coming weeks.

Immune response and safety

A study of 743 patients found that CoronaVac showed safety and a satisfactory immune response during phases 1 and 2 of the tests.

Phase 2 of testing a vaccine verifies the safety and ability to elicit a defense system response. It is usually done with hundreds of volunteers. Phase 1, on the other hand, is carried out by dozens of people and phase 3, by thousands. It is in phase 3, the current one, where the effectiveness of the vaccine is measured.