Health Ministry: Controlling pandemic lies in Brazil’s hands

Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said that Brazil has the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in its hands. He restated that vaccine doses for 2022 are guaranteed, adding that Brazil has the potential of becoming an exporter of the vaccine.

As examples, Queiroga once again mentioned Pfizer’s deal with Brazilian company Eurofarma on the production of 100 million doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation’s (Fiocruz) capacity to manufacture shots with the active pharmaceutical ingredient made in Brazil.

The minister made the statements on Saturday (Nov. 20), at the launch ceremony of the National Mega Vaccination against COVID-19 Week in Rio de Janeiro, created to slash the number of Brazilians who still have not taken the second dose. Approximately 21 million people are reported not to have completed the full two-dose vaccine scheme.

“We have the control of the pandemic in our hands, and it depends on each of us to make effective the efforts to end the pandemic character of this disease,” he said.

The inoculation, the minister reported, has been key in reducing the amount of cases and deaths from the disease in Brazil. He also declared that the vaccine was the number one driver behind the 90 percent plunge in fatalities since April, when the country saw the highest daily average for deaths—over 3 thousand. The current average stands at 268 deaths a day, as per recent data from Fiocruz.

“We want people to voluntarily seek vaccination halls, further increasing vaccine coverage, and also to receive the booster dose, so the people can be protected against a possible outbreak of new cases, as we have observed in Europe,” Queiroga noted.