Brazil is in talks with the United States to import excess COVID-19 vaccines, the Brazilian foreign ministry said on Saturday as the South American country struggles to stem the rising coronavirus infections and deaths.
The ministry tweeted that it had been in talks with the Brazilian embassy in Washington since March 13 “to enable Brazil to import vaccines from the surplus available in the United States”.
The announcement comes after US President Joe Biden’s government on Thursday said it would “lend” 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million other doses to Canada amid a excess in doses.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s government is being put under greater pressure to account for the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the slow onset of vaccines.
The country is experiencing an increase in coronavirus infections and deaths, as more than 290,000 people have died since the start of the pandemic – the second highest score in the world after the US.
More than 11.8 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Brazil so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Since March 13, the Brazilian government, through Itamaraty and the embassy in Washington, in collaboration with the Department of Health, has been negotiating with the U.S. government to enable Brazil to import vaccines from the surplus available in the United States.
– Itamaraty Brazil @ (@Itamaraty_EN) 20 March 2021
The Ministry of Health on Saturday said 79,069 new cases had been reported in the previous 24-hour period, along with 2,438 additional coronavirus-related deaths.
The country’s healthcare network is also nearing collapse in several parts of the country, as local and government officials have tried in recent weeks to impose stricter restrictions in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
The beaches in Rio de Janeiro were closed to the public over the weekend, with Mayor Eduardo Paes urging residents to stay home amid what he describes as a ‘very difficult’ situation.
“We are aware of this and respect our lives, or we are going to live in an unmanageable situation for the next few days,” he added as police officers took up positions off the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Barra de Tijuca.
It was the first time that Rio’s beaches have been closed to the public since it reopened in July last year.
The governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, also earlier this month instituted a two-week “cod red” lockout, which shut down non-essential businesses and restricted other services.
The measures drew protests in Brazil, while law enforcement agencies broke up large gatherings that violated the restrictions.
Al Jazeera’s Daniel Schweimler, reported from Buenos Aires, said on Saturday that there was a problem with conflicting statements and measures by political leaders in Brazil.
While the mayor of Rio de Janeiro closed the beaches, Schweimler said Bolsonaro encouraged people to take up ‘as much vitamin D and sunshine as they can, because he says it’s the best way to fight the coronavirus’.
‘So you really have this big political problem: those who put in place measures to try to fight the pandemic, and the president and his allies say they’m doing a good job, they’re handling it as best they can, it’s not their fault and to really encourage people to do business as usual, ”reports Schweimler.
Bolsonaro, a COVID-19 skeptic who has renounced public health measures and underestimated the threat of the coronavirus, has asked the Brazilian Supreme Court to dismiss the closure orders, local media reported on Friday.
“They are setting up a state of siege that is unconstitutional. They cannot do so without the approval of Congress. They humiliate the population while saying they are saving lives. “How can they save lives, they starve people,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized for the government’s handling of the pandemic [File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]
The judge-president last week named Brazil’s fourth health minister since the pandemic began because he said the country was entering a “more aggressive” phase in the fight against the virus.
Marcelo Queiroga, a cardiologist, has promise to execute the policies of Bolsonaro.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian government has struggled to administer COVID-19 vaccines, which have so far issued at least one dose to about 5.4 percent of the population.
In January, Brazil approved two vaccines for emergency use: the United Kingdom AstraZeneca and the Chinese-developed CoronaVac.
The country said last week that it had ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 38 million from Johnson & Johnson, while negotiating for 13 million doses of Moderna Inc’s vaccine.