Brazil to Begin Vaccination Campaign on Monday Afternoon, January 18th

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – All Brazil’s available vaccine doses will be distributed to the country’s states on Monday, January 18th, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said, with vaccinations able to start from 5 PM.

The states had asked the government to bring forward the rollout of the only vaccine available – the CoronaVac made by China’s Sinovac Biotech and imported by the Butantan biomedical center in São Paulo.

The vaccination plan was initially due to start on Jan. 20.

Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and Britain’s AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.

Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the CoronaVac vaccine.

President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus sceptic who has said he will not take a vaccine himself, is under growing pressure to start inoculations in Brazil, which has lost more than 200,000 to COVID-19 – the worst death toll outside the United States.