05/03/2021 2:12 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 05/03/2021 2:13 PM
After receiving
one million doses
of the vaccine from the US laboratory Pfizer
on Thursday
, the first batch of a 100 million contract, and Brazil is preparing to sign
another contract
for the same amount.
The signing of this new agreement
would be imminent,
according to Globo, which cites the Minister of Health as a source.
Marcelo Queiroga, head of Health, said Monday that the federal government
is "about"
to close the new contract with Pfizer for the purchase of more than 100 million doses of the vaccine.
Currently, the existing agreement foresees the delivery of 100 million doses
until September.
The second agreement, says Queiroga, provides for the delivery of
35 million doses in October alone
.
The minister stated that he hopes to vaccinate half the population with the Pfizer vaccine in 2021. The statement was made at an event at Fiesp's headquarters in São Paulo.
In other words, Brazil will have
200 million doses
of the immunizer Pfizer.
This is equivalent to vaccinating about half of its population this year, because that second contract calls for 35 million doses of Pfizer by October, Queiroga said.
A shipment of Pfizer vaccines arrives at Viracopos airport.
Photo: Reuters
Marcelo Queiroga also said Monday that the federal government wants to expand testing of Brazilians and mentioned the need for
a "quarantine policy
.
"
The country has lived with the coronavirus pandemic since March 2020, but, so far, there is no national coordination for these two types of measures.
The minister defended a strategy to implement measures to combat the pandemic
in public transport
.
He affirmed that the capacity of buses, subways and airplanes contributes to the circulation of the virus.
He also suggested thinking about a specific policy for hospital employees to use specific vehicles to work, in order to avoid going through crowds on public transport.
Pfizer was approved for permanent use in March by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and must deliver another 99 million doses until September.
The country has vaccinated
41 million people
with the 50 million doses it has had since January 17, 90 percent of them from CoronaVac, the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, and the rest from AstraZeneca.
The arrival of the Pfizer doses comes after Anvisa rejected the approval of Sputnik V for reasons of medical safety and lack of documentation.
400 thousand dead
Brazil surpassed 400,000 deaths from coronavirus on Thursday after having been the nation with the most daily deaths from March 9 to April 25, and is maintaining an average of
2,500
deaths per
day
in the last seven days.
CASES
0.000.00000.000
per million inhab.
Xxxxx
DEATHS
00,0000,000
per million inhab.
Source:
Johns Hopkins
Chart:
Flourish
|
Infographic:
Clarín
Since the first contagion, on February 26, and the first death, on March 12, both in São Paulo, the country now has 14,725,975 confirmed cases and a total of 406,437 deaths.
The Ministry of Health, in its most recent epidemiological bulletin, indicated that between Friday and Saturday there was a slight decrease in the number of daily deaths (-2.35%) and in the number of infected (-2.00%) compared to the previous 24 hours.
The "South American giant" lived in April the most lethal month among the fourteen of the pandemic.
According to the official report, in the nation of almost 212 million inhabitants, 13,242,665 patients from the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have been recovered, which represents 89.9% of the total infected.
Another 1,076,873 patients are under medical supervision in hospitals or in their residences after having tested positive in clinical tests.
Brazil, one of the three countries in the world most affected by the pandemic in absolute numbers together with the United States and India, registers a mortality rate of 193 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and an incidence of 7,007 infected people in the same proportion.
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