Raging virus, few shots. How Brazil missed its chance to secure COVID-19 vaccines

FILE PHOTO: Employees pick up vials containing CoronaVac, Sinovac's vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as they put them in trays before boxing at Butantan biomedical production center in Sao Paulo, Brazil January 22, 2021. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Weeks after other Latin American countries began inoculating their citizens against coronavirus, Brazil finally administered its first shot on Jan. 17 using China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd vaccine.

With efficacy of just over 50% - barely above Brazil's threshold for regulatory approval - the Chinese shot was not the government's first choice. But for now, there is little else available.