At least 75% of the residents of the Tokyo Olympic village "have already been vaccinated or planned to do so" before the Olympics.
Thus the president of the IOC Thomas Bach.
"We have good reason to believe that this rate will rise to well over 80%," added the president of the International Olympic Committee during an online meeting with the Japanese organizers of the Games.
The IOC is keen to provide additional medical personnel for the Games, Bach said, as many Japanese fear the event will put further pressure on the country's health system. "The IOC has proposed to the Organizing Committee to integrate additional medical staff into the delegations of the National Olympic Committees," Bach said. This additional staff "will support medical operations and the rigorous implementation of anti-Covid measures in the Olympic Village and Olympic venues," he continued. Bach did not provide details on how many people might be involved.
The organizers will accept this offer, Tokyo-2020 president Seiko Hashimoto replied, adding that the vaccination of the participants "would be of great help in ensuring the safety of the Games". Meanwhile, just over two months after the opening of the Olympics, Tokyo and other Japanese departments are still in full health emergency. According to polls, most Japanese would like to postpone the Olympics again or cancel them.
Japan is currently experiencing a new wave of coronavirus infections and authorities are heavily criticized for the slowness of the national vaccination campaign. But the organizers of the Games say that strict measures, including the establishment of a health "bubble", regular checks and the ban on spectators from abroad enacted at the end of March, will guarantee the safety of the event.
