 Brazil
to begin vaccination campaign on Monday afternoon
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[January 18, 2021]
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - All Brazil's
available vaccine doses will be distributed to the country's states on
Monday, health minister Eduardo Pazuello said, with vaccinations able to
start from 5 p.m. (2000 GMT).
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 The states had asked the government to bring forward the rollout of
the only vaccine available - the CoronaVac shot made by China's
Sinovac Biotech and imported by the Butantan biomediacl center in
Sao Paulo.
The vaccination plan was initially due to start on Jan. 20.
Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use
of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and Britain’s AstraZeneca,
clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly
second wave.
Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both
vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became
the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the
CoronaVac vaccine.
[to top of second column] |
 President Jair Bolsonaro, a
coronavirus sceptic who has refused to take a
vaccine himself, is under growing pressure to
start inoculations in Brazil, which has lost
more than 200,000 to COVID-19 – the worst death
toll outside the United States.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, Jamie McGeever and
Pedro Fonseca; Writing by Sabrina Valle; Editing
by Toby Chopra and David Goodman)
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