Brazil to receive ingredients from China for 25 million vaccine shots in coming days

BRASILIA, May 17 (Reuters) - Brazil will receive ingredients
from China to produce up to 25 million doses of the AstraZeneca
and Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday and
early next week, Health Ministry and political officials said on
Monday.

Rodrigo Cruz, executive secretary at the Health Ministry,
said the Fiocruz biomedical center will receive two lots of
ingredients for 18 million AstraZeneca shots on
Saturday, while Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria said the state's
Butantan biomedical institute will receive ingredients for 7
million shots on May 26.

"The good news is that today I received confirmation that
these two lots will be shipped on May 21. It's enough to produce
approximately 18 million doses," Cruz told a congressional
committee hearing on the COVID-19 crisis.

Cruz said the two lots were originally meant to be shipped
separately on May 21 and 28, arriving the following day.

"Good news! The arrival of the new batch with 4 thousand
liters of inputs, capable of producing 7 million vaccine shots,
is scheduled for 05/26," Doria tweeted.

Both Fiocruz and Butantan depend on ingredients from China
to produce the two most common COVID-19 vaccines being used in
Brazil.

Butantan last week stalled production due to a lack of
supplies from China's Sinovac Biotech, while Fiocruz said
production of AstraZeneca doses would stop this week until new
supplies arrived.

Only 17% of Brazil's residents have received at least one
dose of vaccine and only 8% have been fully vaccinated. The
country ranks 30th in the world based on first doses given,
according to a Reuters analysis.

(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca in Rio de Janeiro and Maria
Carolina Marcello in Brasilia; Writing by Jamie McGeever;
Editing by Bill Berkrot)