Shortages suspend vaccine rollout in Rio de Janeiro

After Governor João Doria of São Paulo complained of not receiving all the Pfizer doses to which his state was entitled, the city of Rio de Janeiro reported that first-dose rollouts will continue to be suspended on Thursday, due to a lack of doses.

According to Mayor Eduardo Paes, the Health Ministry delivered almost 40,000 doses this morning — but not enough to vaccinate citizens aged 24.

“To vaccinate 24-year-olds, we needed 68,000 jabs. We are not going to use our stocks set aside for second doses,” the mayor said on Twitter.

Mr. Paes also suggested that Mr. Doria begin to send shipments of CoronaVac doses produced in São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro “without intermediaries” — despite the national immunization plan centralizing distribution at the federal level.

Mr. Doria used the request as an opportunity to lambast the “incompetence of the federal government.”Lacking vaccines, the schedule for the first dose in the city of Rio de Janeiro had already been interrupted this Wednesday. Since February, vaccination in Rio has been suspended at least 5 times due to lack of immunizers.