First person in Brazil gets AstraZeneca vaccine

Health workers in Rio de Janeiro were among the first people to receive the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Saturday after Brazil received its first two million doses from the Serum Institute of India.

During a symbolic ceremony at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation headquarters, Estevão Portela, a medic from the National Infectolgy Institute was chosen to be the first person vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

First landing in Sao Paulo, then transferred to another aircraft and flown to Rio de Janeiro, the cargo carrying the vaccines was taken to Brazil's state-run Fiocruz Institute.

Vaccines went through a security analysis at FioCruz during the early hours of Saturday and were given the green light for distribution by the Ministry of Health.

Maurício Zuma, director of pharmaceutical company Bio-Manguinhos which is currently developing a COVID-19 vaccine said the inoculation of the AstraZeneca vaccine will boost the effort to immunise all vulnerable people.

Fiocruz President Nísia Trindade called the day a day of ''hope'' as Brazil has the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world with more than 216,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins university.

Brazil started its vaccination campaign on Monday using the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine, produced by biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.

Hospitals across the country have been strained amid reports that a new variant of the new coronavirus is more contagious, and some states have seen a shortage of oxygen supplies.