The IOC to pay for vaccines offered by China to the Olympians for the Tokyo Games

The president of the IOC, the German Thomas Bach, this Wednesday in a telematic meeting of the organism.GREG MARTIN / AFP

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will pay for the covid-19 vaccines that China has made available to Olympic and Paralympic athletes competing in the Tokyo 2020 Games, postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, for each of these doses, the sports organization will donate "two more doses for the population of the respective country."

The president of the IOC, the German Thomas Bach, made this announcement at the 137th session of the committee, which met online on Thursday.

“I can report that a significant number of Olympic teams have already been vaccinated, in accordance with their national vaccination guidelines.

Another important number have already received the commitment of their governments in this regard ”, said Bach.

“The IOC”, he added, “has received a kind offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, host of the Beijing 2022 [winter] Games.

The offer consists of making additional doses of vaccines available to participants in the two editions of the Olympic Games, Tokyo and Beijing 2022 ”.

The president of the IOC pointed out that this Chinese offer "is part of the true Olympic spirit of solidarity."

"In this spirit, the IOC will pay for these additional doses of vaccines, not only for the Olympic teams, but also for the Paralympics," he said.

"In addition, for each of these additional doses for an Olympic and Paralympic team, the IOC will pay two more doses that may be made available to the population of the respective country, according to their needs," announced the IOC President, re-elected this Wednesday for the position.

Thomas Bach insists for several months on the number of international competitions that have been organized since last year without leading to a wave of infections, even before vaccines provided additional protection.

A vast majority of the Japanese population remains, however, hostile to hosting the Games this year, when the spread of more contagious variants of Covid-19 prevents any relaxation of health precautions for the time being.

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