Containers carrying doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine with a banners reading “Vaccination. Brazil immunized. We are an only nation” are unloaded from a cargo plane that arrived from Sao Paulo at the Galeao airport, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After a major diplomatic effort, that included a letter from Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, those shots arrived on Friday

Brazil's federally funded Fiocruz Institute said on Saturday it had begun distributing 2 million ready-to-use AstraZeneca PLC COVID-19 vaccines after they arrived in the country from India on Friday.

Brazil's government has a deal with AstraZeneca to produce up to 100 million doses of its vaccine locally at Rio de Janeiro's Fiocruz Institute, but the delivery of the active ingredient needed to manufacture them has been plagued by delays from China.

As a result, AstraZeneca agreed to supply the government with 2 million ready-to-use doses made in India. After a major diplomatic effort, that included a letter from Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, those shots arrived on Friday.

Until now, Brazil's widely criticised vaccine rollout has depended on a shot developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd vaccine in partnership with Sao Paulo's Butantan Institute.

Bolsonaro had previously decried the Chinese shot as being useless, but his government is becoming increasingly reliant on it to tame the world's second most deadly coronavirus outbreak after the United States.

The far-right former army captain is under growing pressure for his handling of the rollout, which has been plagued by delays and a lack of vaccines, just as a brutal second-wave gathers steam.