Brazil looks for vaccines as India’s crisis slows deliveries

Global supplies of COVID vaccines are tight. Brazil is hunting for more as India’s crisis slows deliveries.

Brazil is struggling to find vaccines to tackle one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks as resurgent outbreaks and supply shortages among top providers slow the pace of deliveries. Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told lawmakers Wednesday he’s seeking vaccines from a variety of partners, including 30 million doses from China’s Sinopharm, plus 8 million doses of the India-produced AstraZeneca shot as well as any U.S. surplus. The problem, he added, is the pandemic’s upsurge in India and tight supplies globally have left Brazil scrambling for doses. “The lack of vaccines and other medicine is not a problem only for Brazil — the virus is harming the whole world,” Franca said during a session of the lower house’s foreign relations committee. “Who could have expected that India would face such an outbreak?”