Brazilian football club Athletic to buy COVID-19 vaccine for members

Brazilian top football club Athletico Paranaense has said it wants to buy COVID-19 vaccines and make them available free of charge to players, officials, and supporters, with paid membership.

Earlier this week, the Congress of Brazil passed a law allowing private companies to buy vaccines. If it goes into effect, Athletico says they will buy it in collaboration with other companies.

The Curitiba-based club, which won the Copa Sudamericana in 2018, said on Thursday it would make the vaccines available "to all their employees, players, backroom staff and [members] who help by paying their monthly membership fees during the pandemic, albeit they can not go to the stadium ”.

Athletico did not mention how many members they have, but media statements put the number between 20,000 and 30,000 ahead of the pandemic.

The club's monthly membership, which is similar to season tickets in Europe, costs between 75 Brazilian reals ($ 13.5) and 350 reals ($ 62.9).

"Athletico encourages all institutions connected in football to do their part to help the country defeat the COVID-19 pandemic," the club stated in a declaration.

Brazil is the second most affected country by the pandemic, with officials reporting a record daily death toll of 4,249 on Thursday.

More than 345,000 people have lost their lives in the most populous country in South America due to the virus.

Brazil is on top the world in the daily average number of new deaths recorded due to the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization acknowledged the country's serious condition due to coronavirus and said that the nation of 210 million people is in a very critical condition with an overwhelming healthcare system.