BRASILIA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's vaccination campaign against COVID-19 will begin at the end of January in pandemic hotspot Manaus, capital of northern Amazonas state, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Wednesday.

"We are going to vaccinate in January," the minister told the press.

While Manaus will be the first city to immunize residents, the vaccine will be distributed simultaneously to every state across the country, he said.

Immunization does not mean "go out to party," Pazuello warned. "It's not take the vaccine on the 20th and party in the streets on the 22nd."

Pazuello explained that "the vaccine induces the production of antibodies" but "this production of antibodies does not happen the next day. The literature speaks of 30 to 60 days."

This month, Manaus is among Brazil's hardest-hit cities, registering a rise in deaths from the disease that forced authorities to set up cold storage to prevent bodies from being buried in mass graves, as occurred last year.