Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga announced this Wednesday (23) that the current contract of the Ministry of Health with suppliers already provides for the supply of updated vaccines against new strains of Covid-19. Information provided by Agência Brasil.

Queiroga commented on his social media on ongoing contracts for the purchase of immunizers – Photo: Wallace Martins/Ministry of Health/Disclosure/ND

According to information gathered by Agência Brasil, Queiroga commented on the topic on his social media. “Soon we will have a schedule of batch shipments. Vaccines are effective against severe forms of the disease and death. For this reason, look for vaccination posts,” the minister stressed.

On Tuesday (22), Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) approved the emergency use of two bivalent Covid-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer Laboratories to protect against the Ômicron subvariants of the novel coronavirus.

According to Anvisa, the application will be carried out as a booster dose in people aged 12 and over, respecting a period of three months after the last application of the immunizer. “With Anvisa’s emergency use approval for the bivalent version of Pfizer’s vaccine, we will have another immunizer to fight this disease,” Keyroga said.

The folder currently has a contract to buy 100 million doses of Pfizer to be delivered from this year. The signed agreement provides for the addition of 50 million doses, including refurbished or pediatric immunizers, if requested by the ministry.

Considered second-generation, bivalent immunizers protect against the original variant of the novel coronavirus from Wuhan, China, as well as the latest sub-variants of Omicron. The latter is more contagious but milder, the virus is concentrated in the throat and does not reach the lungs. The original version is less contagious, but more dangerous and deadly.

Minister call:

Minister Marcelo Queiroga also urged Brazilians to get vaccinated against Covid-19: “Today, the rolling average of new Covid-19 cases has increased by 161% over the past 14 days. We cannot relax when we have a weapon against the virus. Almost 70 million did not receive the 1st booster dose and more than 32 million could already take the 2nd booster dose,” the minister wrote.

According to the Ministry of Health, the rolling average of cases for the week of November 6-11 increased by 120% compared to the previous week. Mortality increased by 28% in the same comparison.

The bulletin released on Tuesday (22) reported 16,858 new cases of Covid-19 in the folder in the last 24 hours across the country. According to the state and municipal health departments, 116 deaths caused by complications of the disease were confirmed during the same period.