Coronavirus: Brazil embraces Covid-19 vaccine from China despite president’s resistance to ‘that other country’

Brazilian federal government reaches deal with Sao Paulo state, which is helping to test and produce CoronaVac by Sinovac Biotech

Brazil has signed a contract for 100 million doses of Oxford vaccine but CoronaVac is expected to be available first

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A Sinovac employee works in a lab at a factory producing CoronaVac, a vaccine against Covid-19, in Beijing. Photo: AP Photo

Published: 2:50pm, 21 Oct 2020Updated: 3:11pm, 21 Oct 2020

Brazil’s health minister said on Tuesday the country would add the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19 to its national immunisation programme, despite a political and diplomatic row over whether to use it.

Eduardo Pazuello said the federal government had reached a deal with Sao Paulo state, which is helping to test and produce the vaccine, to buy 46 million doses to be administered starting in January.

“This vaccine will be Brazil’s vaccine,” in addition to another developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, Pazuello told a video meeting of the South American country’s 27 governors.

Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello. Photo: AFP

“That’s our big news. This is going to recalibrate the process” of eventually vaccinating Brazil’s population against Covid-19, which has claimed more lives here than any country except the United States.

CoronaVac, developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, has been caught up in a messy battle in Brazil.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had labelled it the vaccine from “that other country”, and resisted using it, pushing for the Oxford vaccine instead.