Brazil to receive first dose of Chinese coronavirus vaccine this week

Brazil's Butantan Institute biomedical centre will welcome the first doses of China's Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19 this week, institute director Dimas Covas announced on Tuesday.

Covas told a congressional delegation observing Brazil's COVID-19 response that introductory results of the trials Butantan is leading in Brazil show the vaccine, called CoronaVac, has an outstanding protection profile.

He stated Butantan requires to have 46 million doses available in January pending permission of the vaccine by Brazil's health regulator Anvisa.

Covas announced 10,000 volunteers have already taken about 19,000 shots of the two-dose vaccination, and another 2,000 people are yet to be involved in the trials, carried at 16 centres linked to Brazilian universities.

Anvisa halted the trials for a day and a half last week after the demise of a volunteer, which police described as suicide and Butantan stated had no connection to the vaccine.

The temporary halt had no impact on the clinical examinations, Covas declared, continuing that Butantan has a “very reliable understanding” with the head of Anvisa, Antonio Barra Torres, who also testified before the commission.

Butantan and Anvisa have sent specialists to China where they are in two-week isolation before they can attend vaccine facilities, they replied.