Brazil's inoculation drive halted in Rio de Janeiro as vaccine doses run out
In a situation that spread grimly on Wednesday, Brazil health authorities had to stall the administration of the second COVID-19 dose among the vulnerable.
- World News
- 3 min read
Brazil’s second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday halted its mass vaccination campaign after it ran out of COVID-19 shots and scrambled to demand assistance from Brazil’s federal government. The country had earlier pledged to manufacture 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca, domestically, amid the supply shortages and the vaccination shipment delays from the manufacturers. However, in a situation that spread grimly on Wednesday, AP reported, that the Brazilian health authorities had to stall the administration of the second COVID-19 dose among the vulnerable elderly high-risk group after doses finished. In a statement issued later, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said that the additional COVID-19 vaccine shots were not expecting to be delivered anytime soon, probably by next week. “We are ready and we have already vaccinated 244,852 people,” Paes said on Twitter. “We just need the vaccine to arrive,” he added, regretting the inconvenience.
Many other states, such as Salvador, in the northeastern state of Bahia, and Cuiaba, in Mato Grosso state, had to adapt to similar strategies after the shots ran out and people were turned away from their second routine jab, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported. Mayors and governors, in turn, criticized Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for the lackadaisical response to the coronavirus pandemic, whose severity he had downplayed since the start. The Brazilian president had also, for days, mocked about the efficacy of the vaccines. Brazil’s Health Ministry this week struck an agreement with Sao Paulo state’s Butantan Institute to procure 54 million doses in addition to a contract for 46 million doses signed on Jan. 7. “This contract, like the first, was a struggle. It was only signed yesterday, with countless comings and goings, countless changes in the clauses,” said Dimas Covas, director of the Butantan Institute.
[Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, right, and Butantan Institute Director Dimas Covas give a news conference at a vaccination center. Credit: AP]
Supply run-out was 'speculated'
Amid a critical shortage of COVID-19 jabs that led to the suspension of inoculation drive even in Bahia state’s capital Salvador, mayors and governors had earlier sought to turn to their own vaccine supply plans. Fearing that the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro would make no efforts to restart the stalled mass vaccination campaign, Brazil’s governors and mayors pushed to ramp up their own state’s vials supply, amid speculations that Brazil’s two biggest cities, Rio and Sao Paulo will soon run out of doses. Sao Paulo’s João Doria, a former Bolsonaro ally, criticized the Brazilian government for procuring 100 million CoronaVac shots from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, condemning the delay in delivery that has hampered the Latin American country’s vaccination goals.
Published By : Zaini Majeed
Published On: 18 February 2021 at 08:30 IST