Brasilia, Jun 3 (IANS): Brazil exceeded 100 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19 distributed throughout the country since the launch of its national vaccination plan on January 18, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

"This is an important mark because it represents the realization of our effort to ensure vaccination to the Brazilian population. We are taking care of lives with a dose of hope," said Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, Xinhua reported.

To date, the South American country has immunized 54 million people, or a third of the target population, according to the ministry, with the goal of inoculating the entire population by the end of 2021.

Brazil's vaccination campaign began with the use of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, which was later joined by the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and recently by the vaccine from US laboratory Pfizer.

The government has contracted more than 600 million doses to be delivered through the end of the year, according to ministry data.

This week, the Brazilian government will ship doses of the vaccines to begin the immunization of education workers.

Meanwhile, the inoculation of people with comorbidities and permanent disabilities, pregnant and postpartum women, Afro-descendant and coastal communities, and air transport workers continues.

The vaccination of the general population has been authorized in descending order of age for people under 60 years old, once the immunization of the most vulnerable priority groups and education workers has been completed.

As of Tuesday, Brazil had over 16.62 million COVID-19 cases and 465,199 deaths, according to the latest Health Ministry report.