Brazil vaccine Photo:VCG

An employee from Chinese vaccine producer Sinovac says the company is to follow the requirements of authorities after Brazilian medicine department approved the import of 6 million Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines, despite twists and turns in the country's decision about the purchase. 

Brazil's National Sanitary Surveillance Agency, also known as Anvisa, on Friday authorized Sao Paulo's Butantan Institute to import 6 million doses of the Sinovac's coronavirus vaccine, although just one day ago President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil "would not buy the Chinese vaccine," Reuters reported Saturday.

In comment on such progress, a source from Sinovac told the Global Times on Saturday that the processes, however, are not decided by the company, because both exporting from China and importing to Brazil will be based on official exchanges and the process will be complex.

"There have been many twists and uncertainty," the source said.

The vaccine, still under Phase III clinical trials with the efforts of a local university in Brazil, has not been approved yet for wider use in Brazil, according to the report.

Previously, Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Tuesday the federal government "had reached a deal with São Paulo state to buy 46 million doses of the vaccine," the BBC reported.

Dimas Tadeu Covas, director of Instituto Butantan also expressed optimism about Sinovac's vaccine.

A company source told the Global Times earlier this month that the price of each dose would not be as low as $1.96, as the Sao Paulo governor had implied.

Brazil's COVID-19 death toll has reached 156,471 and the country has more than 5.3 million people infected, the country's Ministry of Health said Friday. The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been hit the hardest by the disease, with 1,083,641 cases and 38,608 deaths, according to the ministry, the Xinhua News Agency reported.