Earlier in the day, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) officially confirmed an agreement with Bahia to deliver 50 million doses of the Russian vaccine.
"Friday begins with the official announcement of great news! ... I am very happy about the agreements we signed. I believe in science and I am confident in the results. This is another important step taken to save lives," Costa wrote on Twitter.
According to the RDIF, the deliveries are expected to start in November and are subject to approval by Brazil’s regulators.
On 11 August, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, named Sputnik V and developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and produced jointly with the RDIF. The vaccine is currently undergoing phase 3 of clinical trials.
In early September, the authorities of the Brazilian state of Parana, on the basis of a bilateral agreement with the RDIF, announced that they would begin testing the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in October on 10,000 volunteer medical workers. The agreement includes, in addition to the third phase of clinical trials, the production and distribution of the vaccine in Brazil.
In the meantime, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has expressed skepticism over the coronavirus and the need to prioritize health regulations over economic activity, said earlier on Friday that the country was the least affected by the pandemic and was on the course of defeating it.
"We are practically defeating the pandemic," Bolsonaro said, as quoted by the Globo outlet, adding that the country was "one of the least affected by COVID-19 given the measures taken by the federal government."
Brazil comes third in terms of coronavirus cases after the United States and India, with a total number of cases confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic exceeding 4.2 million. The death toll in the Latin American country has reached 129,522.
