The World Health Organization said on Monday (1st) that it is impossible to guarantee that Brazil will receive from 10 million to 14 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine from the international consortium Covax Facility in mid-February, as announced this Saturday (30) by the Ministry of Health.
The federal government claimed to have received the information by letter from Covax, but, according to the director of the WHO immunization department, Mariângela Simão, these are estimations, which still need to be confirmed.
“We are still waiting for the projection on the number of doses that will be available in February and March. There are bottlenecks in the production of several manufacturers, and it may be that the volumes will be lower than expected, ”she said.
In the past two weeks, AstraZeneca, which produces the main vaccine of the federal government's campaign, has cut off its supply to the European Union due to problems at its factory in Belgium.
Deliveries have also been reduced by the manufacturers of two other unused vaccines in Brazil, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, leading countries to suspend vaccination campaigns.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon