Lack of Coronavac stops vaccination of 3 and 4 year olds in at least seven capitals

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With a lack of doses, at least seven capitals had to temporarily suspend vaccination of 3 and 4 year olds against Covid. Cities such as Belo Horizonte, Aracaju, Belém, Maceió, Recife, Brasília and Rio de Janeiro are included in the list.

In some of them, stocks, which were already low, reached zero this week. In others, the suspension of the campaign has lasted more than 20 days.

The missing vaccine is Coronavac, produced by the Butantan Institute and approved in July by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to be distributed to this age group.

In Belo Horizonte, immunizers ran out earlier this week, according to the city hall. The prediction is that the campaign will resume once new doses are sent by the Ministry of Health.

In a note, the folder says that it should send a new shipment to all states from this Friday (18).

In Brasilia, the low stock already led the health department to concentrate the offer, since October 24, only for the second dose. Vaccines, however, ended this Wednesday (16).

“Currently, the Central Cold Network has zero stock of this vaccine”, informs the health department.

The same situation is seen in other cities, such as Aracaju, Belém and Maceió, where campaigns were suspended this week.

The vaccine schedule with Coronavac is two doses, with an interval of 28 days between each one. According to city halls, parents of children who already have the forecast of applying the second dose must wait for a new call to attend the posts.

In addition to these cities, the Covid vaccination campaign had already been suspended in Rio de Janeiro, at the end of October, and in Recife, earlier this month.

At the time, the mayor of the capital of Pernambuco, João Campos (PSB), criticized the Ministry of Health through social networks. “It is absurd to have to suspend vaccination of this group due to lack of national planning in the acquisition and distribution of vaccines”, he wrote at the time.

Health departments in the two cities say they have not yet received an estimated arrival date for the vaccine and that vaccination is still suspended.

Until new doses arrive, Rio City Hall says it has started vaccinating 3 and 4-year-olds with comorbidities with the Pfizer vaccine for children. The others must wait for the Coronavac vaccine.

Mauro Junqueira, executive secretary of Conasems, a council that brings together municipal health departments, says that the lack of doses is one-off.

He claims that doses have been purchased by the ministry according to demand as a strategy to avoid losses and that vaccines have been reallocated in case of low stocks.

Parents, however, report difficulty finding doses for children aged 3 and 4 years for more than three weeks in some cities.

Mother of a three-year-old girl, Clara Fagundes says she sought the vaccine at least three times in Brasilia, without success.

“I went right at the beginning of the campaign, as soon as vaccination for children was released, and they were only vaccinating those four years old. When I returned, there were no more. Then I went again and there was no vaccine”, he says. “My daughter was super frustrated.”

Sought by the report, the Ministry of Health informed that it should start distributing a shipment of 1 million doses starting this Friday (18) for vaccination of children aged 3 and 4 years.

Before this submission, the folder says that it had already made available a similar amount for all states and the Federal District.

With the forecast, the expectation is that the campaigns will be resumed as the doses are being relocated to the municipalities.

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