[21] Soon after the vaccines were approved for emergency use, the government of São Paulo held a press conference to perform the first application.

The states that started vaccination on the 18th were São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Paraná, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso do Sul, Ceará, Goiás, Piauí, and Santa Catarina.

[30] The social worker and nursing technician, Vanuzia Costa, from the multiethnic village Sons of this Earth, was the first one vaccinated among the indigenous people.

[33][34] On 17 February 2021, then-health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, in a meeting with governors, presented a schedule about vaccination in Brazil.

Negotiations between Brazil and Pfizer/BioNtech began in the second half of 2020, but did not move forward due to the Brazilian government's refusal to accept a contractual clause exempting the pharmaceutical company from bearing the costs of[37] possible side effects of the vaccine.

The Ministry of Health said that this signing was possible thanks to Bill 534 of 2021 that mentions that "the Union, the States, the Federal District and the municipalities are authorized to purchase vaccines and to assume the risks related to civil liability, under the terms of the instrument of purchase or supply of vaccines entered into, in relation to post-vaccination adverse events".

According to the Ministry of Health they will also be delivered: On 16 April 2021, Minister Marcelo Queiroga announced the anticipation of the delivery of 1 million ready doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

[46][47] The city of Serrana, in the interior of São Paulo, became the first Brazilian municipality to carry out mass vaccination with the population over 18 years old, divided into four groups.

[52][53] On 27 April 2021, the city of Botucatu, interior of São Paulo, was chosen by the Ministry of Health to start the mass vaccination phase in the population over 18 years old.

[54] Botucatu was chosen because the project covers more people and because it is the regional pole of the Hospital de Clínicas, which serves sixty municipalities and has already held a mass vaccination campaign in 2009 during the campaign against yellow fever, using children, besides being the city with the second lowest fatality rate against covid with 1.60% among municipalities with 100,000 inhabitants.

[84] On 31 August, the cities of Salvador and Curitiba began administering booster doses to the elderly ahead of schedule,[85] soon followed by most other state capitals.

[89] On 22 November 2022, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) approved the two bivalent versions of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 subvariants.

Hesitation is low even among supporters of unvaccinated president Jair Bolsonaro, who claimed that the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine could turn recipients into alligators and cause HIV/AIDS and suggested that CoronaVac could cause death and disability, all false.

[100] Several federative units have approved the requirement of a vaccine passport in physical or digital form to allow entry to some venues or participation in some activities: São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Ceará, Pará, Santa Catarina, Amazonas, Paraíba, Espírito Santo, Piauí, the Federal District and Acre.

In Santa Catarina, Belo Horizonte, Maceió and Aracaju, a negative RT-PCR issued within 72 hours is accepted in place of the vaccine passport.

[101][102] The COVID-19 national vaccination plan defines the following priority groups and order:[2] The following comorbidities are eligible for inclusion in the high priority group: The Public Ministry received complaints of people accused of jumping the vaccination queue in at least eight Brazilian states, through videos and photos posted on social networks.

According to the National Immunization Plan (PNI), the first phase corresponds to health professionals, seniors over sixty who live in nursing homes, and the indigenous population.

[105][106] In Bahia, through the city of Candiba, the mayor Reginaldo Martins Prado (PSD) posted a photo receiving the dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, without yet being part of the priority group, leading to the opening of lawsuits in the MP and MPF preventing the application of the second dose, in addition to the application of fines.

[107] In Sergipe, in the city of Itabi, the mayor Júnior de Amintas (DEM) was the first to be vaccinated, generating a revolt from the population, since he is 45 years old, below the age range of the first phase.

[112] In Castanhal, in Pará, the administrative director of the Municipal Hospital was dismissed by the city government after being accused of jumping the line of the CoronaVac vaccine.

The public agent Laureno Lemos, 38, presented himself for vaccination in the early evening of Tuesday, 19, just after the first dose was applied in the server Nivalda Pestana, 58, who has worked for almost 20 years in the hospital laundry and is on the front line of COVID-19.

The Federal Council of Nursing (COFEN), the Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ), and the police are investigating whether the false applications are related to the deviation of vaccine vials.

[118][119][120][121][122] Soon after approaching one month from the beginning of the vaccination campaign in the country, several Brazilian cities, including capitals such as Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba started to restrict the priority groups and then announce the interruption of the vaccination campaign until the arrival of new doses to the states.

[127][128] On the 24th, the Senate approves the PL that authorizes the purchase of vaccines by the private sector, as long as 50% of the doses are donated to the Unified Health System (SUS).

[135] One day after the denunciation, there was a Federal Police operation in the state to carry out search and seizure warrants, and it was authorized by the 35th Criminal Court of Belo Horizonte.

[138] On March 18, 2021, the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais installed a CPI to investigate vaccination irregularities in addition to the accusations of queue jumping.

[139] The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) identified evidence of irregularities in the purchase of 20 million doses of the Indian vaccine Covaxin, a fact that led the health minister Marcelo Queiroga to enter the list of investigated by the CPI of COVID-19, after documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that the federal government paid for the vaccines a value 1000% higher than the first offer submitted six months earlier.

[140] After the complaints were filed, the government denies irregularities and speaks of "evidence of tampering" in a document presented by the deputy.

[143] On 16 December 2021, Anvisa, the Brazilian medical regulatory agency, issued an authorization for the administration of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to children between 5 and 11.