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Workers unload a refrigerated container with coronavirus vaccines from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo on November 19.
Photographer: Jonne Roriz / Bloomberg
Photographer: Jonne Roriz / Bloomberg
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest state, which has suffered the brunt of the pandemic, received its first batch of CoronaVac injections amid a new surge in coronavirus cases.
A delegation of politicians and researchers received the shipment of 120,000 doses of Vaccines from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. on Thursday morning at the international airport and another 46 million doses are expected to arrive in January.
CoronaVac is one of four vaccines currently in phase 3 trials in Brazil, involving some 13,000 healthcare professionals. Distribution to São Paulo’s broader population of 44 million residents will begin only after the trials conclude and the vaccine is approved by the nation’s health regulator, Anvisa.
Hours after the first vaccines arrived, state officials, including Gov. Joao Doria, spoke to reporters at a press conference that focused largely on a further increase in cases.
“We see some fatigue with regard to the pandemic,” said Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn. “It is a moment of attention and caution.”
Although still well below the critical moments seen earlier this year, Sao Paulo’s moving average of new infections has risen to its highest level since early October. Hospitalizations have increased 8% in the last week.
the The state, the richest in the country, represents approximately 20% of the 5.95 million cases in the country. One in four Brazilians who have died from the disease is in Sao Paulo.
Although state officials failed to announce new restrictive measures and ruled out the possibility of a lockdown, they suspended the scheduling of all non-essential surgeries in the public health system. The field hospitals have been disbanded, but the beds reserved for Covid patients will remain on hold for now.
Recent problems with the Health Ministry system, the target of a cyberattack earlier this month, have made case numbers less reliable and have placed a greater emphasis on tracking hospitalizations, authorities said.
The main factor behind the increase in infections appears to be parties and gatherings of younger people, Gorinchteyn said.
Political dispute
Sinovac’s The vaccine, which is being developed locally in partnership with São Paulo’s Butantan Institute, has become the focus of a growing dispute between Doria and President Jair Bolsonaro.
Earlier this month, the health regulator Anvisa stopped testing the shot after a participant in the trials died, only to reverse its decision less than 48 hours later amid criticism, the move was politically motivated. The individual’s death was not related to the trial, the researchers said.
Dimas Tadeu Covas, director of the Butantan Institute, from left to right, Jean Gorinchteyn and Joao Doria hold boxes of the CoronaVac that just arrived on November 19.
Photographer: Jonne Roriz / Bloomberg
Read more: China’s CoronaVac test resumes in Brazil after ‘adverse event’
Bolsonaro, who routinely downplays the severity of the virus, has he criticized the ally turned enemy Doria and the “origin” of the vaccine. He also appeared to celebrate the trial lull on social media saying it was “another victory for Bolsonaro.”
China has already started administering its vaccines, including Coronavac, to hundreds of thousands of people under broad approval for emergency use. China’s Ministry of Science said last month that its companies have inoculated about 60,000 volunteers in end-stage trials with no reports of serious adverse events.
“Now is the time for the federal government to make a concerted effort on vaccines,” Doria said. “Vaccines are the ultimate solution.”
