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The doses that will arrive in the country will be used just in emergencies, such as patients at high risk of dying due to the disease.
Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) Sunday authorized the "exceptional import" of 2 million doses of the vaccine produced by Oxford University and the United Kingdom-based laboratory AstraZeneca.
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The doses that will arrive in the country in the next days will not be supplied to the entire population. The immunizer will be used in emergencies, such as patients at high risk of dying due to the disease.
"More doses will arrive at the country to vaccinate the rest of the population as soon as the product is approved by the Agency," Anvisa stated.
Brazil expects to have 110 million doses, which represents half of its population, in the first half of the year, following the importation and national production of AstraZeneca's anti-COVID-19 vaccine.
State-owned Fiocruz laboratory will produce the vaccine thanks to an agreement signed between the British and Brazilian governments.
The percentage of Brazilians who say they "would definitely take" a COVID vaccine has fallen from 85% to 60% since July, as Bolsonaro attacked not just the Chinese version but all of them pic.twitter.com/kXQeYQhoIW
— Brian Winter (@BrazilBrian) December 27, 2020
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has minimized the disease's impact in Brazil, said he won't get vaccinated against the COVID-19.
"The percentage of Brazilian people who say they 'would take' a COVID-19 vaccine fall from 85 percent to 60 percent since July, as Bolsonaro attacked not just the Chinese version but all of them," Latin America political analyst Brian Winter tweeted.
The far-right-wing president, however, is under pressure to catch up on the vaccination program. Mexico, Chile, and Argentina began immunizations.
On December 30, the U.K. gave the green light to export its vaccine to the Latin American country, the region's most affected nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.
#Brazil | An NGO created a memorial to COVID-19 victims with crosses. A Bolsonarista came and kicked them down. pic.twitter.com/H0196y14GA
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) August 18, 2020
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