Fiocruz Will Deliver First Doses of the Vaccine in March
In letter to the Federal Public Ministry, foundation says that supply will take more than a month
Fiocruz predicts that it will deliver the first doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Brazil in early March because of the delayed arrival of supplies from China. The previous promise, made in late December, was to complete the first batch of the immunizer by February 8.
The new schedule is contained in a letter from the foundation sent this Tuesday (19) to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), which since December has been monitoring vaccination strategies against the disease.
The document, signed by the director of the Bio-Manguinhos Institute, Mauricio Zuma Medeiros, responded to a letter from the agency that questioned the delivery dates of the 2 million finished doses that will be brought from India and the other parcel that will be processed in Brazil by Fiocruz.
The foundation's forecast is that the IFA (active pharmaceutical ingredient)—material needed to make the vaccine produced by an AstraZeneca partner in China—will arrive next Saturday (23), but confirmation is still needed. The import, which was initially scheduled for December, depends on when the Asian country releases it.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon