Brazil to buy 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from India’s Bharat Biotech

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Health Ministry on Thursday, February 25th, signed a contract to purchase 20 million doses of Covaxin, the Covid-19 vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech, for delivery between March and May.

The ministry said in a statement that the deal is worth R$1.6 billion reais (US$290 million), with the first 8 million doses expected to arrive in March.

To speed up the buying of vaccines in Brazil and deal with the second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak in the world, the ministry said it published new rules last week waiving the bidding process.

Brazil reported 1,541 new COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the second highest daily death toll since the pandemic began, taking total fatalities to 251,498.

With 65,998 new cases, the South American country has now registered 10,390,461 cases, the world’s third worst outbreak behind the United States and India.

Source: Reuters

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