This content was published on May 22, 2021 – 10:13 PM
Sao Paulo, May 22 (EFE) .- Brazil registered 1,899 deaths from covid-19 in the last 24 hours this Saturday, amid alerts from specialists about the possible arrival of a third wave of the pandemic due to the increase in transmissions .
According to the latest bulletin from the Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths from coronavirus rose to 446,309, while the number of cases reached 15.9 million, after accounting for 76,855 infections in the last 24 hours.
The infections have rebounded in recent weeks after the end of the social distancing measures imposed by the governors and mayors to stop the cases and the slow vaccination process in the country.
The concern of specialists has increased in recent days after the first cases of the Indian variant were detected in the country, a strain that was identified in several crew members of a ship from Malaysia, which had been isolated since last weekend in the port of Sao Luis, capital of the northeastern state of Maranaho.
One of the crew, 54, was intubated and is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after his health deteriorated.
BRAZIL RECEIVES RAW MATERIAL FOR PRODUCTION OF MORE DOSES
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), one of the main research centers in the country, today received enough raw material for the production of 12 million doses of the anticovid vaccine.
Fiocruz, responsible for the manufacture in Brazilian soil of the immunizer developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory and the University of Oxford, interrupted the production of the antigen three days ago due to the shortage of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (IFA).
With the arrival of the cargo from China, the Foundation will be able to resume vaccine production in the coming days, at a time when immunization is progressing at a slow pace in the country.
The Butantan Institute, in charge of the local production of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, also has the machines stopped due to the lack of IFA, of which 3,000 liters, enough for 5 million doses, are expected to arrive next Tuesday.
Five months after the start of immunization in Brazil, only about 20% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while the percentage is around 10% in the case of those who have completed two doses. EFE
© EFE 2021. The redistribution and redistribution of all or part of the contents of EFE’s services is expressly prohibited, without the prior and express consent of the EFE SA Agency.
–
