Latin American leaders have appealed at the United Nations for free access to a future Covid-19 vaccine, urging major powers to share their know-how for the sake of global well-being.
The poor and weakest members of society should get preferential treatment when a vaccine for the coronavirus is ready, Pope Francis told the United Nations on Friday. Speaking from the Vatican in a video address to the UN General Assembly, Francis said the worldwide pandemic had highlighted the urgent need to promote public health and ensure access to vaccines.
Brazil and Argentina, Latin American nations seeking more time to commit to the global COVID-19 vaccine facility known as COVAX, said they intend to so as soon as possible after missing Friday’s deadline.
Brazil slashed temporarily the import tax on COVID-19 vaccines and other products related to the fight of the new coronavirus. According to the resolution from the Ministry of Economy's Chamber of Foreign Trade, CAMEX, the objective is to “facilitate the fight against the pandemic”.
Clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University resumed in Brazil on Monday after the country’s health regulator got confirmation over the weekend that its British equivalent MHRA had approved the restart, a company representative said.
The Brazilian state of Bahia has signed an agreement to conduct Phase III clinical trials of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and plans to buy 50 million doses to market in Brazil, officials have said.
AstraZeneca has paused a late-stage trial of one of the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates after a suspected serious adverse reaction in a study participant, health news website Stat News reported on Tuesday.
Brazil's acting Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Tuesday that a Covid-19 vaccine would be rolled out for all Brazilians in January 2021.
Five percent of Brazilians would refuse under any circumstances to take a vaccine against coronavirus and a further 20% indicated they might not take it, according to a survey published in newspaper O Estado de S Paulo on Sunday.
World Health Organization spokeswoman said on Friday it does not expect widespread vaccinations against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, stressing the importance of rigorous checks on their effectiveness and safety.