Without revealing the launch date for the vaccination roll-out against Covid, the Ministry of Health's executive secretary, Elcio Franco, said on Wednesday (13) that vaccination against Covid will start only when all capital cities have doses of the vaccine.
He forecast that vaccination will start three to five days after the approval by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency).
"Why have guidelines to start everyone at the same time? Our motto is that nobody will be left behind. [...] It is good for São Paulo to have Butantan and Rio de Janeiro to have the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Still, we cannot treat each Brazilian differently," he said when asked about the possibility of vaccination starting in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where the two laboratories are located. "São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are not losing, Brazil is winning," he said.
However, the doses should take a few more days to reach the interior - hence the option to start when the doses are in the capitals, he says.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon