The Brazilian Ministry of Health has tied up with India’s pharmaceutical company ‘Bharat Biotech’ to purchase 20 million doses of Covaxin, a vaccine for Covid-19. Brazil due to lack of vaccines only 4 percent of its 21 crore population has been vaccinated.
The use of covaxin, however, has not yet been approved by local regulators. The agreement was reached on the day that the death toll from infection in Brazil reached 2.5 lakh.
The administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that the first batch of 8 million doses of the ‘covaxin’ vaccine would arrive in March. The second batch of 8 million doses is expected in April and another 4 million doses in May.
The death toll from the disease has risen to 251,661, with 1,541 patients killed by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Brazil in the last 24 hours.
None of the country’s pharmaceutical companies ‘Precisa Medicamentos’ and ‘Bharat Biotech’ have confirmed the deal.
