BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s northeastern states suspended plans to import Russia COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V due to the conditions set by the country’s health regulator Anvisa, Piauí state’s governor, Wellington Dias, said on Thursday.
Dias met with representatives of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that is marketing the vaccine developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, who said the 37 million doses that were to be sold to Brazil would be supplied to Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia.
Anvisa denied Sputnik emergency use authorization in Brazil, but allowed northeastern states to import 2 million doses under strict conditions that included testing the vaccine to detect adenovirus replication before using it, as well as testing and monitoring people receiving the shots.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
