Lack of coronavirus vaccines in Brazil: capitals of states that suspend vaccination campaign increase to six

Lack of COVID-19 vaccines in Brazil already forced six regional capitals to suspend vaccination of its inhabitants, including Rio de Janeiro, which interrupted the process on Wednesday, at a time when the pandemic has intensified sharply in the iconic city.

Salvador Yes Cuiaba, capitals of the states of Bahia and Mato Grosso, respectively, they stopped the application of antidotes the day before, Y Belem, the capital of Pará, he suspended it since Sunday. The forecast is that between Thursday and Friday the same will happen in Curitiba, the capital of Paraná, and in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.

Vaccine shortages also affect several municipalities in the country, which aroused the fury of the National Confederation of Municipalities, which criticized the government’s lack of forethought and asked the head of the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello.

According to the agency, the Ministry of Health “repeatedly ignored“For the mayors of Brazil and its owner did not carry out the necessary planning for the acquisition of vaccines because”his command did not believe in vaccination as a way out of the crisis“.

“Considering that vaccination is the only way to overcome the health crisis and allow the resumption of economic and social development, and because we do not believe that the current administration meets the conditions to carry out this process, The municipal movement considers that the change of command in the portfolio (Health) is necessary, urgent and inevitable for the good of Brazilians“Said the confederation in a statement released the day before.

Brazil started its vaccination campaign exactly one month ago and so far the Ministry of Health has distributed 12 million doses (2 million from the antidote from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca and 10 million from the Chinese Sinovac).

Despite the fact that the Ministry of Health assured that he had already purchased 354 million vaccines that should be received in a year, including 200 million manufactured in the country, there is still no forecast when the new batches of immunizers will be released.

Rio suffers from worst records since the start of the pandemic

The interruption of vaccination in Rio de Janeiro comes at a time when recorded the record of coronavirus cases in a single day, with 8,385 new infections counted, the highest number in the region since the arrival of the pandemic in the country at the end of February 2020.

Out of more than 8,300 new cases, 90.5% were diagnosed in its namesake capital with around 7,600 positives.

The state, one of the most affected by the pandemic in the country, There are already more than 31,600 deaths from COVID-19, including more than 18,121 in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the highest number of fatalities in the whole country, even over São Paulo, a city that is doubling in number of inhabitants.

According to the mayor of the city, Eduardo Paes, new doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected for next week, when the city’s vaccination schedule resumes.

Brazil is the second country with the most COVID-19 deaths in the world (241,000), behind the United States, and the third with the most infections (9.9 million) after the country of America North and India.

(With information from EFE)

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