Coronavirus: Brazil has received a million doses of …

Brazil has received one million doses of the vaccine from the US laboratory Pfizer, the first batch of a 100 million contract, in the same week when Brazilian regulator has rejected import and use of Sputnik V vaccine for lack of safety, hired by nine governors opposed to President Jair Bolsonaro.

The shipment arrived Thursday evening at Viracopos International Airport in Campinas, São Paulo state, after a change in government strategy, which last year he rejected the purchase of 70 million doses of Pfizer due to the drug company’s leonine conditions, as Bolsonaro himself had revealed.

Pfizer was approved for permanent use in March by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and must deliver 99 million additional doses until September.

According to data from the Brazilian media consortium, just over 14 percent of the population received a first dose of the vaccine and less than seven percent both.

Brazil also suffers from a shortage of doses, with cities of at least 18 states across the country that had to discontinue application of the second dose.

The country has vaccinated 41 million people with the 50 million doses it has received since Jan. 17, 90 percent of them from the CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, and the rest of AstraZeneca.

Brazil topped 400,000 coronavirus deaths on Thursday after being the country with the most daily deaths from March 9 to April 25, and maintains an average of 2,500 deaths per day over the past seven days.

The Department of Health will distribute the million doses of Pfizer vaccine this weekend fairly to states and municipalities, and with the refrigeration systems it needs, in boxes with temperatures between 25 and 15 degrees below zero.

The arrival of Pfizer doses occurs after Anvisa to reject approval of Sputnik V for reasons of medical safety and lack of documentation.

This prompted a repudiation by the Russian fund that markets the vaccine, which attributed the decision to pressure from the United States on the government of Jair Bolsonaro.

President’s acquisition of vaccines and refusal to purchase them in 2020 are under investigation by a parliamentary committee of the Senate which was installed this week and which has already summoned for the next the four ministers of health that Bolsonaro had since the start of the pandemic, including the current one, Marcelo Queiroga.