BRASILIA, Feb 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil registered on Wednesday 1,254
more deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the last 24 hours, raising the
total death toll to 227,563.
According to the Health Ministry, the number of infections rose to
9,339,420 after 56,002 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours.
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s worst-hit state and its most populated one, has
registered 53,704 deaths and 1,807,009 cases.
Brazil has the world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the
United States, and the third-largest caseload, after the United States and
India.
The South American country began its vaccination drive on Jan 17, after
the Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) authorized the emergency use of the
CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Life
Science, and a vaccine by AstraZeneca.
Anvisa announced on Wednesday that it is changing the procedure for
approving vaccines for emergency use. From now on, it will not require that phase III trials be carried out inside Brazil prior to emergency approval.
The Brazilian government announced it was negotiating the purchase of 30 million coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia and India, after regulators made it easier for the treatments to win emergency-use authorizations.
Until now, only the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot and China’s CoronaVac have
been permitted in Brazil, the second-hardest-hit country after the US, with
more than 226,000 deaths from Covid-19.
Brazil’s health surveillance agency said it would no longer require final
Phase 3 trials to be carried out in Brazil, clearing the way for the
emergency authorization of the vaccinations.
The health ministry said it is meeting representatives from Russia
and India on Friday to finalize details of a deal, which would see some 18
million doses delivered this month, and 12 million more in March.
The move comes after The Lancet medical journal this week published
results showing Sputnik V — named after the Soviet-era satellite — to be
safe and 91.6 percent effective, allaying concerns over transparency.
Brazil began vaccinations January 17, starting with medical workers, the
indigenous population and the elderly.
With 212 million inhabitants, Brazil has suffered an average of 1,062
deaths and 50,000 cases per day in the past week. — NNN-AGENCIES
