Brazil facing mutated virus that is three times more contagious -health minister

Brazil is facing a new stage of the coronavirus pandemic with mutated variants of the virus that are three times more contagious, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Thursday, as the country hit a quarter of a million deaths.

Pazuello said the government has distributed between 13 million and 14 million vaccine doses and plans to have inoculated half of the country's 210 million population by midyear. Brazil is negotiating to buy all the vaccines it can, and Congress is looking at legislation to allow the government to buy shots from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen subsidiary.