Passengers disembark from the cruise ship MSC Preziosa, in the Port Area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 2, 2022, after Brazil's Sanitary Agency confirmed 28 cases of COVID-19 on board - 26 passengers and two crew members. Photo: Xinhua

Brazilian health authorities authorized COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 on Wednesday, as South America's most populous country faces a rapid increase in cases due to holiday gatherings and the arrival of the Omicron variant.

The final green light by Brazil's Ministry of Health comes three weeks after the nation's independent medicines regulator, Anvisa, declared Pfizer-BioNTech's child-size dose to be safe and effective.

"To all those parents who want to vaccinate their children, the Ministry of Health will guarantee doses of the [COVID-19] vaccine," said Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga in Brasilia.

Controversy abounded in Brazil until Wednesday's announcement, with many alleging an improper delay by the government. President Jair Bolsonaro, who did not get vaccinated and said he will not immunize his 11-year-old daughter Laura, asked weeks ago to publish the names of those responsible for Anvisa's decision, unleashing a wave of threats.

The final authorization comes amid a rising rate of infections in the country and a struggle to repair the health ministry's hacked COVID-19 website.

Brazil's Health Ministry recorded 18,759 new cases in 24 hours in its latest data released Tuesday, the highest level since October 5.

The seven-day average also rose to 9,876 new cases, up from 5,033 the previous Tuesday, and 3,386 the week before that.

The rapidly increasing rate of new infections follows a trend seen in other nations where Omicron has taken hold.

"We will have growth of the Omicron variant here as in all the other countries," said Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist with the Federal University of Espirito Santo.

"The Christmas and New Year holidays, and the Omicron variant contributed a lot," she explained.

But she also noted that Brazil "has a backlog of data due to a problem with the tracking system," meaning the site is currently being updated which inflates the number of cases.

After the US, Brazil has the second highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with around 620,000 since the global pandemic began.

AFP