Guwahati News Desk: With an aim to prevent health risks, Brazil has imposed a ban on the distribution of Chinese Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines.
The decision to impose the ban came after Brazil’s federal health regulator, Anvisa, found that China’s Sinovac vaccines were not inspected, and approved by Anvisa for emergency use and that these vaccines were manufactured in an unauthorized plant.
The vaccines were being developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
As per media reports, the ban was imposed after a consignment consisting of over 12 million COVID jabs entered the country in 25 batches, while another lot of 9 million doses of the Chinese vaccines were being prepared for shipment.
In addition, it was on September 3 that Sao Paulo’s Butantan Institute, which is a biomedical research center, alerted the Brazilian health regulatory body about the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, i.e. it was the Butantan Institute, which has partnered with China’s Sinovac Biotech in manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine, that went ahead to alert the government health body about the Chinese medical institute producing the vaccine in an unauthorized plant.
Moreover, while informing the government health body, Butantan also mentioned that more doses made at the same manufacturing point were on the way to Brazil. To which, Anvisa said it would investigate the matter and inspect the plant during the 90-day ban.
However, Butantan’s biomedical center did not reveal the location of the unauthorized plant.