BRASILIA, Sept 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazil will launch a mass vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in January, the government said.
“We are signing contracts with those who manufacture the vaccine and the expectation is that the vaccine will reach us starting in January. In January of next year we will begin to vaccinate everybody,” the acting Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello said during a cabinet meeting.
Brazil’s government signed an agreement with the state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), which is working with the University of Oxford to develop a vaccine.
The plan is to initially receive 100.4 million vaccines, which would serve to immunize half the population. A second supply of dosages is expected to be ready in the second half of next year.
Minister of Tourism Marcelo Alvaro Antonio, who also attended the meeting, said he expected the availability of a vaccine to make next summer season “the one with the highest volume of domestic tourism.”
The sector “will come back strong” from the health crisis, he predicted.
The Brazilian government said Tuesday the country’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 127,000 after registering 504 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 127,464.
Additionally, 14,279 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the national count to 4,162,073 cases.
Sao Paulo, the most populous and hardest-hit state in the country, has reported 858,783 cases and 31,430 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 233,373 cases and 16,646 deaths.
Brazil has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Latin America. — NNN-XINHUA
