The Health Ministry of Brazil has signed a contract on 25 February 2021, to purchase 20 million doses of Covaxin, the COVID-19 vaccine made by India's Bharat Biotech, for delivery between March and May 2021, Reuter's news agency reported on Friday.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said that the deal is worth USD290,000, with the first eight million doses expected to arrive in March 2021.

The Health Ministry added that to speed up the process of buying of COVID-19 vaccines in Brazil and to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, it had published new rules last week dispensing with the bidding process.

As of 25 February 2021, Brazil reported 1,541 new COVID-19 deaths, the second highest daily death toll since the pandemic began, taking total fatalities to 251,498.

Brazil also added 65,998 new cases, registering a total of 10,390,461 COVID-19 cases, the world's third worst outbreak after the US and India.