Brazil stages massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19

The Health Ministry is set to carry out a campaign entitled Mega Vaccination from November 20 through 26, to encourage people to take all recommended doses of the vaccine, thus completing the basic immunization cycle.

As it stands today, 21 people failed to go to a health station to take the second dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, for a variety of reasons.

The minister also announced changes to the vaccination schedule. The interval until the booster (third) dose, originally six months after the second dose, has been cut down to five months.

Those who received the Janssen vaccine, listed before as single dose, will also be given a second dose—which should be administered two months after the first—in addition to a booster dose five months after the second.

Furthermore, the ministry expanded the age group receiving the third dose, now recommended to everyone aged 18 and above. The new guidelines will be implemented by state and municipal health secretariats.

“Our goal through the Mega Vaccination campaign [and the new guidelines] is to further expand access [to vaccines] and convince people to seek basic health units, so we can gain even more confidence from the Brazilian people and achieve efficient sanitary control to keep new waves of COVID-19 at bay,” said Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga on Tuesday (Nov. 16).

Increase in cases

The health minister also said that federal, state, and city authorities should discuss measures to be adopted in a bid to prevent COVID-19 cases from growing again, as has been observed in other countries, especially in Europe.

“What we want is to go back to normalcy as quickly as possible, but we need to see what’s happening in other countries,” Queiroga declared when asked whether the vaccination measures unveiled Tuesday (16) takes into account the upcoming holidays and festivities, for which major gatherings are usually expected, like the New Year’s Eve and Carnival.

“We’ve been monitoring the epidemiological landscape. At any sign there may be an increase in cases, the loosening-up measures can be revised –further limiting them or making them more flexible,” the minister said in reference to Carnival in 2022. “It’s an issue that needs to be discussed.”

Europe

Over the last weeks, a number of European countries announced the resumption of some of the sanitary restrictions aimed at curbing the increase in coronavirus infections—among them Germany, Austria, Denmark, France, and the UK.