Brazil receives 2.2 million vaccines donated by the U.S.

AstraZeneca vaccines arrive at the Campinas Viracopos Airport. Photo: U.S. Embassy

Brazilian health officials announced on Sunday that the country received a batch of almost 2.2 million AstraZeneca vaccines sent by the U.S. government.

In June of this year, the U.S. had already donated 3 million doses of the Janssen vaccine.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Brasília, “in addition to vaccine donations, the U.S. government to date has contributed BRL 110 million (USD 19 million) in direct assistance” to Brazil during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The U.S. has tried to increase vaccine donations to Latin America — but when the region received its first vaccines, they didn’t get them from Western powers but from China and Russia instead. These deals, however, often came with strings attached, as we explained in our Explaining Brazil Podcast.

Janaína Camelo

Janaína Camelo has been a political reporter for ten years, working for multiple media outlets. More recently, she worked for the presidency's press service and is now specializing in data journalism.