Today, vaccine rollouts face further delays in Brazil. A large chunk of future power plants are well behind schedule, causing fears about Brazil’s energy capacity. Government avoids disaster with former Health Minister’s testimony.
The state of vaccine rollouts in Brazil
Health authorities in Brazil have confirmed the country’s first infections with the B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant — the so-called Indian variant. All cases were found among crew members of an ore carrier ship quarantined off the coast of northeastern state Maranhão.
Bad timing. The World Health Organization classifies the Indian variant as a significant threat due to its high potential for contagion. Indeed, the mutation arrives in Brazil as vaccine rollouts face a slump. The average of daily jabs in arms fell 17 percent in May, and a lack of raw materials suggests imminent shortages across the country.
- Conass, a national council of state health officials, expects daily vaccination rates to fall even further in the next few weeks. After the state of São Paulo halted production of the CoronaVac, the federally-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation did the same with the AstraZeneca immunizer — at least until Tuesday, when a new batch of inputs should be ready for use.
- In a meeting...