São Paulo Government to Announce Covid-19 State Immunization Plan

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The government of São Paulo has prepared a State Immunization Plan against Covid-19. The document includes the full schedule, priority groups and the amount of vaccines available to the population. Last Thursday, December 3rd, São Paulo governor João Doria said that he would present the full plan on Monday, December 7th.

“We will present the full State Immunization Program, specifically, with a schedule, with the sectors to be prioritized, amount of vaccines, regions, areas, logistics, safety, all processes will be presented. We have had the program for a little over 20 days and we will present it next Monday, December 7th”, said Doria in a press conference at the Bandeirantes Palace.

According to the governor, the program will only be implemented from January 15th, the term set by the National Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) for the final analysis of the Butantan vaccine trial, developed together with the Chinese Sinovac laboratory.

The plan’s presentation is a reaction to the Ministry of Health’s statement that the National Vaccination Plan against the coronavirus will only be ready once a vaccine is approved by ANVISA. Internally, the portfolio is working with the inclusion of some groups, such as the elderly, as the first to be immunized. This plan will likely have four stages and it’s expected to begin only in March. It is unclear whether or not the Butantan vaccine will be purchased by the federal government.

Last week, the São Paulo government received the second batch of CoronaVac doses. This batch consisted of 600 liters in bulk, the equivalent of one million doses. Last month, São Paulo had already been supplied with the first 120,000 doses of the ready-made vaccine. The Butantan says it will have 46 million doses by the end of the year. The total cost of the São Paulo government contract with the Chinese laboratory amounts to US$90 million.

Although these two batches are in Brazil, vaccination still depends on the clinical trial results – the so-called phase 3 – which will prove the immunizer’s efficacy.

In a peer-reviewed study published on November 17th in the prestigious magazine The Lancet, the CoronaVac was reported to be safe and capable of producing antibodies in 97% of 700 volunteers who participated in phase 1 and 2 trials in China.

Last trial phase

In late November, the CoronaVac efficacy trial in Brazil reached the minimum number of infected people. As a result, trials entered their final phase of investigation to determine whether it is truly effective against the coronavirus. A total of 13,000 volunteers are involved in the study.

Half of them are administered the vaccine and the other half a placebo. The Butantan Institute established that from the minimum number of infected – 61 cases – the results start to be analyzed individually. In other words, researchers start by analyzing if the infected are within the immunized group or the placebo group, and check if the vaccine has achieved the goal of fighting the coronavirus.

According to Butantan Institute director Dimas Covas, the analysis of infection cases is expected to be completed next week.

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