Speaking to Metrópoles, he questioned the need for so-called vaccine passports, and claimed to be protected against the virus having been infected with last July.

Bolsonaro questioned: "Why [should I have] a card, a vaccination passport?

"I just wanted to watch the Santos match and I was told I had to be vaccinated, why?

"I have more antibodies than whoever took the vaccines."

The President has been spending time around São Paulo, with Santos situated just outside Brazil's biggest city on the coast.

Supporters had been retuning to the Estádio Urbano Caldeira for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at yesterday's match, but Santos required fans to show proof they have been vaccinated or had a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in order to gain entry.

The Série A fixture finished 1-0 to the home side courtesy of an injury-time winner, a result which leaves Grêmio second bottom and the hosts just one place above the bottom four as two of Brazilian football's most historic clubs battle to avoid relegation.

During a visit to nearby Peruíbe at the weekend, Bolsonaro was fined BRL500 (£65/$90/€80) for failing to obey the city's requirements on wearing a mask.

Bolsonaro has been an outspoken COVID-19 and vaccine sceptic since the beginning of the pandemic.

The right-wing leader has regularly downplayed the threat posed by the virus, refusing calls for a national lockdown as Brazil's cases rose in March and April and criticising restrictions imposed by Governors and Mayors at state level.

In May, he gave the go ahead to Brazil staging the following month's Copa América after Argentina pulled out as host amid a backdrop of public hostility following a surge in COVID-19 infections, which drew criticism from opposition leaders.

The Brazilian President is one of the most high-profile world leaders to publicly claim he has not been vaccinated.

At the start of October, many thousands of protestors took to the streets across Brazil demanding Bolsonaro's impeachment over factors including his handling of the pandemic.

Only the United States and India have recorded more COVID-19 cases than Brazil's total of more than 21.5 million, while its death toll of approximately 600,000 is the second-worst globally.

Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 and assumed office in 2019, with a next Presidential election in Brazil is scheduled to take place next October.

Current opinion polls suggest the incumbent would be likely to lose, with his approval ratings at an all-time low.

However, Bolsonaro claimed following a wave of protests in September that "only God will oust me" and said he would not take part in an election he described as a "farce".