Coronavirus: Brazil hits 7 million cases as governor reveals Chinese vaccine plan
- Brazil will buy 46 million doses of Sinovac vaccine, state governor says
- Nation reports 7 million coronavirus cases as infections pick up pace
Brazil’s federal government will purchase 46 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine being developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, a state governor said on as authorities rush to source vaccines in a sometimes-confusing free-for-all.
The decision came as Brazil registered over 70,000 new cases of the coronavirus, a daily record, bringing the country’s total caseload above 7 million as a second wave of infections slams the South American country.
Brazil has the second-deadliest Covid-19 outbreak in the world, behind only the United States, with over 180,000 deaths from the highly contagious respiratory virus. Wednesday’s record came without even the daily numbers from Sao Paulo state, the nation’s most populous, which has been the epicentre of the outbreak.
Wellington Dias, the leftist governor of the northeast state of Piaui, said Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello told him of the federal government’s plan to purchase the vaccine, which is being produced at the Instituto Butantan, a biomedical centre in Sao Paulo state.
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First doses of China’s CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine land in Brazil
He told journalists he saw a copy of a production and delivery contract during a meeting with Pazuello, adding that 9 million doses are set to be delivered on January 25.
In a statement, the Instituto Butantan said it had sent a proposal to provide the vaccine in response to a request from the Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pazuello had previously said in October that the government planned to purchase 46 million doses of CoronaVac, but Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, quickly said Pazuello was mistaken.