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The Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, said on Wednesday (9) that it is possible to start vaccination against Covid-19 in an emergency in the population in December or January, depending on the authorization granted by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). and also the delivery of vaccines by laboratories.
Pazuello also said that the broad immunization of the Brazilian population could begin in January or February.
The information was given this Wednesday morning in an interview with CNN. The day before, Pazuello made a statement to the press, but did not cite details about the vaccination plan.
“The emergency use could happen now in December, hypothetically, if we close the contract with Pfizer. The ‘yes’ is because the contract is closing. Sorry for the gerund. If Pfizer obtains the emergency authorization and if Pfizer anticipates us some delivery, it could happen in January, end of December ”, said the minister. “This is in small doses, in small amounts, which are for emergency use. This can happen with Pfizer, it can happen with Butantan, with AstraZeneca, but that’s an intimate forum for the developer. It is not a vaccination campaign. “
The day before, the president of Pfizer in Brazil, Carlos Murillo, said that it is possible to start vaccination almost immediately after an emergency registration by Anvisa. Murillo says he believes that, depending on the progress of the conversations and analysis of the Brazilian agencies, the vaccination process could begin in January.
“We are working to start vaccinating almost immediately after receiving emergency use approval from Anvisa,” he said, citing that, in the case of the UK, health clearance was granted last week and vaccination started on Tuesday ( 8). According to him, the company is committed to delivering doses at vaccination points to be defined by the government, and not just to unloading doses at an airport, for example.
He also said that the company has portable containers capable of transporting vaccines at the required temperature (-70ºC) and storing them for up to 30 days. Almost 5,000 doses of the vaccine could be loaded into each unit. If you only need to use part of the load, the box can be opened for up to two minutes.
The emergency authorization for the vaccines began to be planned after the adoption of the process by Anvisa, last week. The guarantee will be granted quickly if the criteria for immunizations are still under study. However, this vaccine is valid for a specific group and not for the entire Brazilian population.
The country will have at least 300 million doses of vaccines starting next year. There are 100 million from AstraZeneca / Oxford University, 160 million of this vaccine will be produced by Fiocruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz) and another 40 million from the international consortium Covax Facility.
The Ministry of Health also reported that it has signed the intention to buy 70 million doses of Pfizer.
“If this record reaches us in January, we will already have doses of Pfizer and doses of AstraZeneca delivered. If Butantan already has your records, we will too. The quantities depend on the delivery forecast. “
“We are working to start vaccinating almost immediately after receiving emergency use approval from Anvisa,” he said, citing that, in the case of the UK, health clearance was granted last week and vaccination started on Tuesday ( 8).
According to him, the company undertakes to deliver doses at the vaccination points to be defined by the government, and not just to unload doses at an airport, for example.
He also said that the company has portable containers capable of transporting vaccines at the necessary temperature (-70ºC) and storing them for up to 30 days. Almost 5,000 doses of the vaccine could be loaded into each unit. If you only need to use part of the load, the box can be opened for up to two minutes.
The minister also said that he expects the completion of clinical trials of vaccines in Brazil by the end of December, especially of AstraZeneca and Pfizer: the first has already been acquired by the federal government and the second is in the process of contract negotiation.
Pazuello said 15 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and another 500,000 of the Pfizer immunization are expected to arrive in January. The minister said he had no information on Coronavac, a Butantan vaccine in association with China’s Sinovac.
“If we observe this, it is very likely that in January and February we will already be vaccinating the Brazilian population,” he added.
