Brazil vaccine rollout finally begins

Deliveries of CoronaVac, a Chinese Covid vaccine, are touching down in Amazonas, Brazil's largest and most isolated state, as the country's long-awaited vaccination programme gets underway.

Amazonas, which has the largest indigenous population in Brazil, has seen Covid related casualties soar due to oxygen shortages in its overwhelmed hospitals. Indigenous communities show particular vulnerabilities to Covid-19 due to the isolated conditions in which many live.

The regional government hopes to increase tribal take-up of the vaccine by administering the region's first vaccination to Vanda Ortega, a Witoto indigenous healthcare worker.

In Brazil, Covid-related deaths now exceed 217,000, making Brazil second only to the United States. It's against this backdrop that local governments have initiated their vaccination programmes ahead of President Bolsonaro's official order. The outspoken president has cast doubts on the efficacy of the vaccine and has objected to all attempts by local governors to impose lockdown measures, citing the need to protect the economy.

With no end in sight to the political polemic, Ortega made this call following her injection.

Ortega: "There are more than a million indigenous people living in Brazilian territory who require help too during this pandemic. Thank you all so much, may Tupã look after all of us, may God take care of all of us."

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