Covid-19: child vaccination starts in Brazil

The vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 against Covid-19 in Brazil began on January 14, 2022. Davi Xavante, an eight-year-old indigenous boy, was the first Brazilian child vaccinated, during an official ceremony at the Sao Paulo Clinics Hospital.

AFP - NELSON ALMEIDA

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

An 8-year-old boy received his first dose at an official ceremony on Friday January 14.

Ten million doses are to be administered from Monday despite anti-vax criticism from President Bolsonaro, as the population has embraced vaccination en masse.

Advertising

Read more

Davi Seremramiwe Xavante, an eight-year-old indigenous boy with a disability, was the first Brazilian child to be vaccinated, during an official ceremony at the São Paulo Clinics Hospital.

This ceremony took place in the presence of Joao Doria, center-right governor of the state of São Paulo, fierce opponent of President Jair Bolsonaro and presidential candidate for October too.

It was already in São Paulo, the largest metropolis in Brazil, with 12 million inhabitants, that the very first injection of a dose of anti-Covid vaccine in Brazil had taken place, to a 54-year-old black nurse, on January 17, 2021.

Mass vaccination of 5-11 year olds will begin next week across the country with pediatric doses of Pfizer-BioNtech's vaccine, and will need to be authorized by parents.

More than 20 million children will be able to be immunized, with doses of pediatric vaccine from the American laboratory Pfizer-BioNtech, and subject to parental authorization.

Children with comorbidities and populations considered more vulnerable, such as indigenous people, are prioritized.

Vaccination progresses

To date, more than two-thirds of the Brazilian population have received two doses of Covid vaccines, and almost 80% have received the first dose.

The campaign started late due to President

's criticism of the effectiveness of vaccines and their potential side effects, says our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro,

.

These delays explain why only 15% of the population received a dose of reinforcement, while the wave of the Omicron variant is falling on Brazil, with more than 100,000 cases recorded per day.

However, it is precisely advances in vaccination that have avoided a sharp increase in deaths and the saturation of hospitals.

Jair Bolsonaro suggested that the Omicron variant was "

" in Brazil, as it could signal the end of the pandemic, and argued that vaccination of children was not necessary, because, he said, no child would have succumbed to the virus, before being denied by the facts.

►

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• Brazil

• Coronavirus

• Vaccines