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The Health Ministry reiterated to the Butantan Institute the urgency of receiving 6 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine that São Paulo bought from China and said that it could not delegate the distribution of the vaccines to the São Paulo government. Butantan had questioned the use of these doses and reinforced the need for part of them to stay in São Paulo.
“We inform you that the responsibility for the preparation, updating and coordination of the national plan for the operationalization of vaccination against covid-19 rests with the Ministry of Health,” wrote the director of the Department of Health Logistics, Roberto Ferreira Dias. “Therefore, we cannot delegate the distribution of vaccines, mainly due to the exceptional state that the country is experiencing due to the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (covid-19).”
The note also says that “the contract signed between the Union and the Butantan Foundation does not foresee that the distribution of vaccine doses will be carried out directly by the Butantan Foundation.”
“Finally, there is a need for immediate delivery of the 6 million doses so that the dose distribution schedule is not compromised and there is no delay in the start of vaccination of the Brazilian population, emphasizing that all stages of the distribution will be supported by the Ministry of Defense. “
The 1st letter of the Ministry
The negotiation between the Ministry of Health and the Butantan Institute for the immediate shipment of 6 million doses began with a letter from the director Roberto Dias asking Dimas Covas, director of the Butantan Institute, earlier this Friday afternoon (15).
“We ask for good prices to provide immediate delivery of the 6 million imported doses that were the subject of an emergency use authorization request with Anvisa.”
We highlight the urgency in the immediate delivery of the amount contracted and mentioned above, considering that this Ministry needs to make the appropriate allocation to start the logistics distribution to all the states of the federation simultaneously and equitably, according to the schedule provided in the National Plan. Operationalization of the vaccination against COVID-19, as soon as the authorization of the regulatory agency is granted, whose decision is scheduled for Sunday, January 17, 2021 ”.
Butantan’s response
The Butantan Institute responded by saying that it would supply the doses and requested that the Institute itself distribute an amount.
“In this regard, we inform that we are billing for the aforementioned amount of vaccines, with the respective issuance of the Invoice. We will deliver all the required doses; and we ask you to inform us of the amount to send to the State of São Paulo so that deliver directly to CDL-SES-SP as usual for the other vaccines produced by the Butantan Institute.
We are awaiting your guidance regarding the start of the vaccination campaign, with the confirmation of the defined date and time, considering that it must occur simultaneously in all the states of Brazil. “
