Brazil said Saturday it is in talks with the U.S. to potentially receive excess doses of coronavirus vaccines.
Brazils’ foreign ministry said that the talks began on March 13, though the U.S. has given no public indication that vaccine doses are on the way to the South American country.
“Since March 13, the Brazilian Government, through [the Foreign Ministry] and the Embassy in Washington, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, has been negotiating with the US Government to make it possible for Brazil to import vaccines from the surplus available in the United States,” the foreign ministry said in a tweet.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill inquiring if negotiations were, in fact, ongoing.
The Biden administration this week said it will loan 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada and Mexico, but it made no mention of any similar arrangement with Brazil.
Brazil’s outbreak is the second deadliest in the world, just behind the U.S. Its situation has only grown more dire as a highly infectious variant sweeps the nation and spreads across the globe. Over 290,000 people have died in the country.
Brazil’s vaccination rollout has also been slowed by dwindling supplies, with some localities running out of doses entirely.