China to provide Brazil with more vaccine material

China's Ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming confirmed Tuesday that Beijing will export the materials needed by Brazil's Butantan Institute to make more Coronavac vaccines.

This will provide the state of Sao Paulo with enough vaccines to increase the number of people it can immunize against the COVID-19 virus.

Ambassador Yang Wanming spoke to journalists in Sao Paulo via video conference after a virtual meeting with the State's Governor, Joao Doria.

He highlighted the importance of the partnership with Brazil and said the vaccine was not a "political instrument" but rather a means to tackle the pandemic.

The shipment of 5,400 litres of material necessary to make the vaccine developed by the Chinese Sinovac Laboratory is expected to arrive on February 3 and will allow Brazil's Butantan Institute to produce about 8.6 million doses.

Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, is under fire for his government's response to rampant cases of COVID-19, which has claimed more than 217,664 lives in the country.

State Governor Joao Doria, was once allied with Bolsonaro, but is now a rival, and has criticized the federal response to the pandemic.

"Until this moment we have not received a single penny from the Ministry of Health (Federal). I imagine they will fulfill the contract and the commitment and pay, but until now, all investments, since May of last year, was from Sao Paulo's government and from the Butantan Institute," Doria said on Tuesday.