First doses of China’s CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Nov 19- The first 120,000 doses of CoronaVac, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech that is being tested in Brazil, arrived at São Paulo’s international airport on Thursday morning, the state government said. The doses will be stored in an undisclosed warehouse as the state awaits approval for use in Brazil by the national health…

SAO PAULO, Nov 19 (Reuters) – The first 120,000 doses of

CoronaVac, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac

Biotech that is being tested in Brazil, arrived at São

Paulo’s international airport on Thursday morning, the state

government said.

The doses will be stored in an undisclosed warehouse as thestate awaits approval for use in Brazil by the national healthregulator known as Anvisa.

The cargo, which arrived in seven refrigerated containers,is part of a batch of 6 million doses that are being importedfrom China ready for use in January.

Sao Paulo authorities have not estimated the timing fordistribution. At press conferences in recent days the governmentsaid final Phase 3 trials to assess the efficacy and safety ofthe vaccine were still ongoing in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.

Approval of Coronavac will not be concluded before Dec. 21and could take until the first week of January, Anvisa managerfor inspections Ronaldo Gomes told reporters on Wednesday.

A team of Anvisa inspectors are now in Beijing completing atwo-week quarantine period in a hotel before they can visit aSinovac lab to certify the vaccine for good manufacturingpractices required to register it in Brazil, he said.

(Reporting by Amanda Perobelli and Eduardo Simões Writing bySabrina ValleEditing by Mark Heinrich)