Brasilia (Brazil), April 1: Brazil's health regulatory agency Anvisa on Wednesday approved the emergency use of a vaccine against the novel
coronavirus disease, which is developed by Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of U.S. multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson.
The March 24 request for emergency approval took seven days to process, said Anvisa.
Janssen's vaccine joins the CoronaVac vaccine made by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac in getting authorization for emergency use in Brazil. Vaccines by Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca have received definitive registration in the South American country.
Janssen's COVID-19 vaccine is applied intramuscularly as a single 0.5 milliliter dose.
According to the latest report released by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, between Monday and Tuesday 3,780 people died of COVID-19, the highest 24-hour death toll since Brazil's first case was detected on Feb. 26, 2020.
According to independent monitoring website vacinabrasil.org, around 17 million people have been vaccinated throughout the country with the first dose, while some five million people have received the second dose.
Source: Xinhua
