LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that it has received an offer from China to make vaccines available for athletes participating at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach additionally said that it will pay for the additional batch of vaccines that China will produce for the Games.
"... the IOC has received an offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, the host of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, to assist in making vaccines available. (Bach) noted that the plan was to make vaccine doses available to NOCs in whose territories the Chinese vaccine has been approved by the relevant national health authority," said the IOC in its statement from the 137th IOC Session on Thursday.
"Although the details are still being worked out, President Bach confirmed that the IOC is ready to pay for these additional doses of vaccines for not only the Olympic but also the Paralympic teams, as well as for two further doses, which can be made available to the population in the respective countries according to their needs," it further said.
Bach also informed the session that a significant number of Olympic teams had already been vaccinated, and others "had received commitments from their governments, in line with their respective national vaccination delivery strategies".
The Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8 this year. It was originally slated to be held from July 24 to August 9, 2020, but was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic. The 2022 Winter Olympics is currently scheduled to be held from February 4 to 20 in Beijing towns in the neighbouring Hebei province in China. IANS
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