Sao Paulo To Launch Vaccination Campaign In January: Governor

Sao Paulo state, Latin America's coronavirus epicenter, will launch a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in January, the governor said Monday, though a political battle with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro could derail those plans.

Governor Joao Doria said large-scale immunization using the Chinese-developed vaccine CoronaVac would begin with healthcare workers, the elderly and other vulnerable groups on January 25.

"The target public for this initial phase was chosen based on the incidence of coronavirus fatalities in the state," Doria told a news conference.

However, the state's proposed five-phase timeline depends on Brazil's federal regulatory agency, Anvisa, approving the vaccine.

CoronaVac has been caught up in a political battle between Bolsonaro and Doria, a top contender to challenge the far-right president in Brazil's 2022 elections.

Bolsonaro has referred to CoronaVac as "Joao Doria's Chinese vaccine" and pushed for Brazil to instead use the vaccine developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

Both vaccines are undergoing final-stage clinical testing in Brazil.

The South American country has the second-highest death toll in the pandemic after the United States, with nearly 177,000 people killed.

Nearly a quarter of those deaths have been in Sao Paulo, Brazil's industrial hub and home to 46.2 million people.

CoronaVac was developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac.

The company has a deal with Sao Paulo's Butantan Institute, Brazil's leading vaccine producer, that allows the institute to manufacture CoronaVac locally.

Under the deal, Sao Paulo secured 46 million doses of CoronaVac in all, enough to immunize 23 million people.

Doria said that some nine million people should be inoculated by March next year in the country's wealthiest state, where 5,200 vaccination centers will be set up.

The federal government, which has secured 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, plans to start its own vaccination campaign in March.

Doria criticized that timeline, saying, "Why wait until March if we can save lives in January?"

According to Anvisa, no vaccine manufacturers have yet applied for regulatory approval in Brazil.

The agency briefly halted clinical trials of CoronaVac last month after the death of a volunteer. Opponents cried foul, accusing Bolsonaro's government of political interference in the regulatory process.

In October, Bolsonaro had already ordered the cancellation of an agreement for the acquisition of millions of doses of the Chinese vaccine, saying that he refused to make Brazilians "guinea pigs."

"We must stop politicizing this subject," Doria told a news conference Monday.

The deal between the government of Sao Paulo and Sinovac provides for the acquisition of six million doses to arrive in Brazil by the end of the month, and the local manufacture of 40 million additional doses.

Sao Paulo authorities said Monday that four million doses would be sold to other Brazilian states.

The Brazilian health ministry announced Monday that it aimed to sign a memorandum of understanding with US drug manufacturer Pfizer for 70 million doses of its vaccine.

On his Twitter account, Bolsonaro said that in the event that Anvisa certifies the vaccines, his government "will offer the vaccine to everyone, for free," but said it would not be made compulsory.