First doses of China's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Brazil

Brazil's Sao Paulo state Health Secretary, Jean Gorinchteyn, Brazil's Sao Paulo state governor, Joao Doria, and director of Instituto Butantan, Dimas Tadeu Covas, hold boxes of the China's Sinovac vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a cargo plane containing the vaccines arrives at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil November 19, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

The first 120,000 doses of CoronaVac, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech <SVA.O> that is being tested in Brazil, arrived at São Paulo's international airport on Thursday morning, the state government said.

The doses will be stored in an undisclosed warehouse as the state awaits approval for use in Brazil by the national health regulator known as Anvisa.

The cargo, which arrived in seven refrigerated containers, is part of a batch of 6 million doses that are being imported from China ready for use in January.

Active temperature control containers carrying China's Sinovac experimental COVID-19 vaccines are seen at the tarmac of Ataturk airport before being loaded onto a Turkish Cargo plane in Istanbul, Turkey November 18, 2020. Turkish Airlines/Handout via REUTERS

Sao Paulo authorities have not estimated the timing for distribution. At press conferences in recent days the government said final Phase 3 trials to assess the efficacy and safety of the vaccine were still ongoing in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.

Approval of Coronavac will not be concluded before Dec. 21 and could take until the first week of January, Anvisa manager for inspections Ronaldo Gomes told reporters on Wednesday.

A team of Anvisa inspectors are now in Beijing completing a two-week quarantine period in a hotel before they can visit a Sinovac lab to certify the vaccine for good manufacturing practices required to register it in Brazil, he said.

Brazil's Sao Paulo state governor, Joao Doria, and director of Instituto Butantan, Dimas Tadeu Covas, hold boxes of the China's Sinovac vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a cargo plane containing the vaccines arrives at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil November 19, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

(Reporting by Amanda Perobelli and Eduardo Simões Writing by Sabrina Valle; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Active temperature control containers carrying China's Sinovac experimental COVID-19 vaccines are loaded onto a Turkish Cargo plane at Ataturk airport before departing to Brazil, in Istanbul, Turkey November 18, 2020. Turkish Airlines/Handout via REUTERS

A refrigerated container with China's Sinovac vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) arrives at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil November 19, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli