LAUSANNE: Competitors at this year’s Tokyo Olympics and Beijing 2022 Winter Games will be offered coronavirus vaccines purchased in China, Olympic Chief Thomas Bach announced on Thursday in an important gesture for hosting the Games of Tokyo delayed by Covid.
“The Chinese Olympic Committee has made an offer to make additional vaccine doses available to participants for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022,” Bach said. “The IOC will pay for these extra doses of vaccine for the Olympic and Paralympic teams.
“The IOC will also pay for two more doses that can be made available to the people of this country,” Bach said, describing it as a “demonstration of solidarity” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tellingly, none of the IOC members who took the virtual floor on the second day of the 137th IOC Session questioned the moral minefield of the athletes jumping in the vaccine queue.
Bach said the Chinese Olympic Committee, in cooperation with the IOC, was ready to make vaccine doses available in two ways.
“This can be done through international partners or in countries where partnerships are already in place with the Chinese government,” he said, without giving further details.
Posted in Dawn on March 12, 2021