Brazil to give first vaccine dose to as many as possible amid COVID-19 surge

Brazil will be lifting its requirement for local authorities to reserve half their coronavirus vaccine stockpiles for second doses. The country said on Sunday that the move is an attempt to accelerate its lagging immunization campaign and curb a deadly COVID-19 surge.

Outgoing health minister Eduardo Pazuello said the goal of the policy switch was to get at least one vaccine dose to the maximum number of people as fast as possible, reported AFP. 

Brazil, which has the second-highest death toll in the pandemic, is so far using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and Chinese-developed CoronaVac, both of which require two doses.

Also Read: Hard-hit Brazil approves first two COVID-19 vaccines: Regulator

“By freeing the full stockpile of vaccines for immediate use, we will be able to double the number of doses applied this week, saving and protecting more lives,” Pazuello said in a statement.

The ministry said it had received guarantees from suppliers that enough vaccines would arrive to ensure all recipients receive their second dose on schedule.

There has been international debate over whether it is better to administer as many first doses as possible or reserve some supply for second doses.

Also Read: Brazil’s Bolsonaro writes to PM Modi, asks to expedite COVID-19 vaccine shipment

Countries such as Britain have shown promising results adopting the first strategy. Brazil has issued at least one dose to around 5.5% of the population so far — way off pace to meet the health ministry’s goal of vaccinating the entire adult population by the end of the year.

In a boost to the immunization campaign, Brazil received its first shipment Sunday of vaccines secured through the United Nations Covax program for low- and middle-income countries.

Just over one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were shipped to Sao Paulo, officials said. The health ministry said another 1.9 million doses were expected by the end of the month under the program.

In a setback, however, public health institute Fiocruz, which is partnering with AstraZeneca to distribute and eventually produce the vaccine in Brazil, confirmed that eight million doses it was expecting from India had been delayed.

It said the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm’s Indian partner, the Serum Institute, had not indicated when it would be able to supply them.

Bolsonaro faces mounting pressure to accelerate the vaccination drive and get a handle on the pandemic, which has claimed 294,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States.

He, however, used the occasion of his 66th birthday on Sunday to renew his attacks on COVID-19 stay-at-home measures, and told his supporters that he would fight for their “freedom.”

The Brazilian president has defied expert advice on social distancing and face masks to slow the spread of the new coronavirus — though he has recently adopted a more pragmatic tone, under pressure amid a deadly surge of COVID-19 in Brazil.