Brazil bans use of Chinese vax made at unauthorised plant

BRASILIA: Brazil has banned the distribution of millions of Chinese Sinovac COVID19 vaccines as the plant in which they were made is not authorised by the Latin American country's health regulator.

In a statement on Saturday, ANVISA, a regulatory body of the Brazilian government, said it has "determined the precautionary interdiction of batches of CoronaVac vaccine, prohibiting the distribution and use of batches in the plant not approved by the Authorization for Emergency Use (AUE)." The ban came after 12.13 million CoronaVac doses already entered the country in 25 batches. Another 17 batches containing a total of 9 million doses of the Sinovac COVID19 vaccine are being prepared for shipment.

Brazil's Butantan Institute, a biomedical centre that has partnered with China's Sinovac Biotech to locally finish the vaccines, alerted Anvisa on Friday about the doses, but neither disclosed the location of the plant. Anvisa said it would seek to inspect the plant during the 90-day ban.

Britain to require ‘passport’ for nightclubs

Britain's government has confirmed that it plans to introduce vaccine passports for nightclubs and large-scale gatherings from next month. Vaccines minister Nadhim

Zahawi said Sunday that officials are looking to begin the certification measures from the end of September, when the whole over-18 population would have been offered two Covid vaccine doses.

Zahawi told Sky News that this was the "right thing to do" to ensure the economy remains open. Lawmakers and businesses, however, have criticized the measure as divisive and say they could embroil nightclubs in discrimination cases.