Rio’s Mayor suspends Covid vaccination due to insufficient doses (February 15th)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – No carnival, and now, no more vaccines. Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes said on Monday morning, February 15th, that the immunization campaign against Covid-19 in the city will be suspended due to lack of vaccine doses.

The administration of vaccines in seniors aged 84 and 83, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, February 15th and 16th, is still on, according to Paes.

“We are ready and we have already immunized 244,852 people. We only need vaccines to arrive. A new batch should be coming from [the] Butatan Institute next week,” the mayor wrote on his Twitter.

The federal government is responsible for delivering the batch, through the PNI (National Immunization Plan). Butantan, which distributes the Coronavac, transfers the immunizers to the federal Health Ministry.

The São Paulo-based institute said through its press office that the logistics of dose distribution are determined by the Ministry of Health and that deliveries are on schedule.

When asked, the Ministry did not say whether or not the delivery was late. It said in a statement that it has already sent 11.1 million immunizers to states and that Brazil has 354 million doses secured for 2021 through agreements with Fiocruz (212.4 million doses), the Butantan (100 million doses) and the Covax Facility (42.5 million doses).

By Sunday, February 14th, Brazil had vaccinated at least 5 million people with at least one of the two required doses.

“As laboratories release new vaccine batches, new distribution and vaccination schedules for priority groups will be directed by the PNI,” says the Ministry in a statement.

The Municipal Health Secretariat is administering both the Coronavac and the Oxford/AstraZeneca immunizer, the latter a partner of Rio-based Fiocruz. According to the portfolio, new doses of both are expected to be delivered through the Ministry of Health and the State Health Secretariat. Paes only mentioned the Butantan when justifying the campaign’s deferment due to a shortage of vaccines.

Paes expected the arrival of new doses on Monday to stick to the schedule, which included the vaccination of seniors over 75 up to the end of this month.

The Municipal Health Secretariat said it hopes to resume the schedule next week, when seniors aged 82 and over would be immunized. Daniel Soranz, head of the portfolio, said that the second dose for people who have already been vaccinated with the first dose of the Coronavac is secured.

“The second dose is reserved. We will begin to administer it this Monday in long-term care facilities for seniors and to healthcare professionals,” the secretary said.

In an interview with Folha published on Saturday, February 13th, Francieli Fontana, coordinator of the National Immunization Program, said that 4.9 million doses are expected to be delivered by February 23rd.

Recently, Ministry of Health officials mentioned that new batches may be delivered a little earlier, by next Sunday, February 21st – although failing to specify specific dates or the supplier.

Amid the suspension announcement by Rio and the threat of a similar measure in more capitals, Pazuello’s aides are trying to stress that the situation does not represent an end or a suspension of the campaign nationwide, but rather what they call a “momentary interruption” of doses in some cities.

They also point out that the suspension is only applicable to the first dose, given that the second Coronavac dose was expected to be reserved for those who had already been administered the first.

According to the group, the situation in larger cities was expected, given that they have a greater structure to administer the available vaccines.

Vaccination had already been interrupted for a similar reason in three other cities in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro last week. In two of them, São Gonçalo and Duque de Caxias, the Prosecutor’s Office alerted to flaws in organizing assistance to priority groups.

In São Gonçalo, the administration of the first dose was suspended on Tuesday, February 9th. According to the city hall, the second dose had been reserved and began to be administered on Monday, February 8th, to healthcare professionals in the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

On February 6th, the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office (MP-RJ) notified São Gonçalo’s Municipal Health Secretary André Vargas to comply with the requirements for priority groups, as set forth in the national vaccination plan.

In the document, the body says that healthcare professionals have been included by the city hall with no criteria or link to the healthcare facility, which resulted in an “intense migration of healthcare professionals from other neighboring municipalities” to be immunized.

As a result, the Prosecutor’s Office advised the municipality to prioritize professionals in the front-line of the fight against the pandemic, who can prove an active link.

In a statement, the São Gonçalo Municipal Health Secretariat said it has amended the municipal vaccination plan to guarantee priority to healthcare workers over 60 years of age, as well as the city’s senior population.

The Duque de Caxias city hall has not set a date to restart administering the first dose of the immunizer and said it is waiting for the vaccines to be delivered to the municipality.

Niterói, where vaccination was also interrupted on Monday, was the destination of 5,670 Coronavac doses on Tuesday. Administration to seniors over 88 has been restarted. On Wednesday, February 10th, healthcare professionals and seniors in long-term care facilities began to get the second shot of the vaccine.

Niteroi mayor Axel Grael on Monday, February 8th, posted a video on social networks in which he alerted to the responsibility of each level of public administration in the vaccination campaign.

“The Ministry of Health is responsible for buying vaccines and distributing them to the states (…) Niterói actually tried to buy vaccines, but it wasn’t possible. We depend on the vaccines that come from the federal government”, he said.

A total of 370,045 people in the state of Rio had been vaccinated by Monday, equivalent to a little more than 2% of its population.

Source: Folha de São Paulo