Fiocruz International News – February | March 2021

The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) granted the definitive registration of the Fiocruz COVID-19 vaccine on March 12. Thus, Fiocruz becomes the first holder of a registration of a COVID -19 vaccine produced in the country and adds to its product portfolio the eleventh vaccine to be supplied to the National Immunization Program (PNI). With the registration, Fiocruz can deliver to the PNI this week the first one million COVID-19 vaccines produced by the institution. The Foundation expects to deliver 3.8 million doses to the Ministry of Health by the end of March. In April, the delivery estimate will increase to about 21,1 million doses, and by July Fiocruz should complete the delivery of the 100 million doses resulting from the technology order agreement with AstraZeneca.

In face of the current pandemic scenario in Brazil, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) released on March 16 an extraordinary edition of the COVID-19 Observatory Bulletin. The analysis draws attention to the indicators that point to an extremely critical situation across the country. At the moment, out of the 27 federative units, 24 states and the Federal District have occupancy rates for ICU COVID-19 beds for adults in the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS, in the Portuguese acronym) equal to or greater than 80%, 15 of which with rates equal to or greater than 90%. In relation to capital cities, 25 of the 27 have these rates equal to or higher than 80%, 19 of which are higher than 90%.