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SAO PAULO, Jan.23 (Reuters) – The Fiocruz Institute, funded by the Brazilian federal government, said on Saturday it had started distributing 2 million AstraZeneca PLC COVID-19 vaccines ready to use after they arrived in the countries from India on Friday.
The Brazilian government has reached an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce up to 100 million doses of its vaccine locally at the Fiocruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, but the delivery of the active ingredient needed to manufacture them has been marred by delays in from China.
As a result, AstraZeneca agreed to supply the government with 2 million ready-to-use doses made in India. After a major diplomatic effort, which included a letter from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the shots arrived on Friday.
Until now, the deployment of the widely criticized vaccine in Brazil has depended on a vaccine developed by the Sinovac Biotech Ltd vaccine in partnership with the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo.
Bolsonaro had previously decried Chinese shooting as unnecessary, but his government increasingly depends on it to tame the world’s second deadliest coronavirus outbreak after the United States.
The former far-right army captain comes under increasing pressure to manage the deployment, which has been plagued by delays and a lack of vaccines, just as a brutal second wave gathers momentum .
Reporting by Paula Laier; edited by Diane Craft
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