Ministry of Health evaluates buying Coronavac from Butantan

The Ministry of Health is considering purchasing the Coronavac vaccine from the Butantan Institute if there is a need. The folder has about 6 million doses in stock that will be distributed to the states.

The folder decided that it will incorporate Coronavac into the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 for children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years. The announcement should be made this Friday (21) and was anticipated by the Panel.

According to the ministry’s executive secretary, Rodrigo Cruz, a letter was sent to the Butantan Institute to find out the number of doses available, which replied that it had 7 million.

However, the ministry awaits the response from the states to find out how many doses are in stock to assess whether there is a need to make the purchase. The decision is expected to be taken next week.

“Once we receive the information, we will have an idea of ​​the need for doses to be purchased and we will be willing to negotiate, if necessary, any purchase with Coronavac,” Cruz told reporters this Friday. fair (21).

The secretary told leaf that the purchase is not yet certain, will be carried out if there is a need.

Cruz says it is necessary to know the stock of the states and municipalities also to be able to make an equitable distribution between the units of the federation of the doses in stock. An emergency stock will be sent to four states that do not have any doses available.

Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) approved the emergency use of the Coronavac vaccine in children and adolescents from 6 to 17 years old this Thursday (20).

The agency accepted that the dose applied to children is the same as that used in adults, with an interval of 28 days between the first and the second.

As the vaccine is of the same model applied to adults, states are already planning to allocate stocked doses to the younger public. São Paulo started vaccination with the immunizer this Thursday.

Anvisa had already authorized on December 16 the use of the Pfizer vaccine to immunize children aged 5 to 11 years.

On the 5th of this month, the Ministry of Health announced that children would receive the vaccine without the need to present a medical prescription.

The campaign was opened last Friday (14) in São Paulo. The first immunized was Davi Seremramiwe Xavante, an 8-year-old indigenous boy.

The vaccination of children and adolescents is a sensitive topic in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, as the president distorts data and discourages the immunization of young people. He even threatened to expose the names of Anvisa’s servers who approved the use of Pfizer’s product in children.