Brazil halts use of 12 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19 Coronavac

Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, regulator) On Saturday, it suspended the distribution of 25 batches of 12.1 million doses of the Coronavac vaccine, to be packed in a factory in the Asian country that was not approved by the Brazilian supervisory authority.

And “Anfisa” announced in a statement a “precautionary ban” on the lottery and “ban distribution” From the same, after the Institute of Butantan, attached to the State Government of São Paulo and responsible for importing and locally manufacturing the vaccine, notified the origin of the immunization devices.

“The manufacturing unit responsible for the container was not inspected and was not approved by Anvisa when it granted the emergency use of the aforementioned vaccine.” From the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, detailing the regulatory body.

17 more batches packed in the same factory, with 9 million doses, “in the process of shipping and releasing in Brazil”Anvisa completed.

The decision, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, was made “with the aim of mitigating potential health risks” and Avoid ‘exposing the population to potential imminent danger’ With a product packaged in a factory in China that has not been inspected by the Brazilian regulator.

The Butantan Institute has filed an appeal, at a minimum, to release the emergency use of the 12.1 million doses that arrived in Brazil.

Coronavac vaccine, from the Sinovac laboratory, produced in China and Brazil, through the Butantan Institute, was the first vaccine to be applied in Brazil in the vaccination campaign that began on January 17.

However, the immune system only has approval for emergency use, different from the final approval given to those of the American-German federation Pfizer-BioNTech, the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca and the British University at Oxford, produced in India and at state-owned Vucrose.

AstraZeneca accounts for 44.8% of immunization in Brazil, followed by Coronavac (33.8%), Pfizer-BioNTech (19%) and Belgian single-dose Janssen (2.3%).

Brazil, which is one of the three countries hardest hit by the pandemic in absolute numbers along with the United States and India, has nearly 21 million confirmed cases and nearly 583,000 deaths linked to covid-19.

Regarding vaccination, in the country of 213 million people, 199.1 million doses have been made available, with 65.6 million in the second or one-time application. a) yes, 30.7% of the Brazilian population has had a complete course of immunization.

With information from EFE

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