The senator leading a probe into Brazil's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with homicide over what his report says are government errors that led to the deaths of thousands.

The nearly 1,200-page document, prepared by opposition Senator Renan Calheiros, alleges that Bolsonaro deliberately turned down early offers to purchase vaccines, delaying Brazil's inoculation campaign and costing an estimated 95,000 lives, according to Reuters.

The report says Bolsonaro was guided “by an unfounded belief in the theory of herd immunity by natural infection and the existence of a treatment”.

“Without the vaccine, deaths would be stratospheric, as they turned out to be,” the report adds.