Brazil governors seek own vaccine supplies

SAO PAULO — Brazilian state governors are pursuing their own vaccine supply plans, with some expressing concern that President Jair Bolsonaro’s government won’t deliver the shots required to avoid interrupting immunization efforts.

Governors are under pressure from mayors, some of whose vaccine stocks have already been depleted, including three cities in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. Northeastern Bahia state’s capital Salvador suspended vaccination on Thursday because supplies are dwindling. Brazil’s two biggest cities, Rio and Sao Paulo, are expected to be without shots in a matter of days.

The governor who has pushed hardest to shore up his state’s own vaccine supply during the pandemic is Sao Paulo’s João Doria, a former Bolsonaro ally turned adversary. The president repeatedly criticized Doria’s deal to purchase 100 million CoronaVac shots from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and said the federal government wouldn’t buy them.

Bolsonaro reversed course in January, facing delay in the delivery of the only vaccine his administration purchased and watching as other nations began immunizing their citizens while Brazil’s 210 million people were on hold.

“It it weren’t for this (CoronaVac) shot, Brazil today would be a country without vaccines,” Doria told The Associated Press in an interview. He added that he is negotiating for 20 million more doses and, if the federal government doesn’t buy them, he could sell them to other governors. “It is not for a state government to secure vaccines, but here we are.”

Bolsonaro’s administration has a deal for 100 million AstraZeneca doses, but only 2 million of them have arrived, with more expected only in March, according to Fiocruz, the Rio-based laboratory that will produce the shots in Brazil.

Brazil’s government last month contracted for 46 million CoronaVac shots from Sao Paulo, of which nearly 10 million have so far been delivered, and is under pressure to sign another deal for 54 million more.

Vaccines purchased by the federal government have been distributed across the nation, which is more expansive than the U.S.’ contiguous 48 states. With local authorities administering the shots, the number of people immunized isn’t clear, nor which locations have looming shortages.

With nearly 12 million total doses available to date, 4.9 million people have received shots, according to a consortium of Brazilian media.