Brazil’s Minister of Health works to purchase more COVID Vaccine doses

On Thursday (March 4) a release on the PAHO COIVD-19 website stated: “The Brazil Ministry of Health announced the purchase of new COVID-19 vaccines; 138 million doses are expected to be incorporated in the National Immunization Program starting May 2021.”

The day before (on March 3) the Brazil Ministry of Health website  had reported that “so far, more than 17 million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 have been distributed by the Ministry of Health to all states and the Federal District.” The statement added:

“Faced with the serious stage of the pandemic in Brazil, the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, spoke about the progress in the negotiations for the purchase of new doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 this Wednesday (3). The Ministry of Health forecast is that 138 million doses will be incorporated into the National Immunization Program (PNI) starting in May. Advances in treatments represent an important step to expand the vaccination of Brazilians and control the pandemic.

In a meeting with representatives of the Pfizer / BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson laboratories, this Wednesday, Pazuello worked on aligning the contracting schedule and estimated vaccine delivery, which will be confirmed after the contracts are signed.” 

No mention was made in either statement (by PAHO or Brazil MoH) regarding vaccine efficacy against the P.1 variant by any vaccines, whether in WHO’s COVAX facility or not.