COVID-19 vaccines not necessary for Tokyo Olympic athletes

Tokyo:International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Saturday said COVID-19 vaccinations will not be necessary for athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.

"The athletes and the national Olympic committees should follow their national regulations on vaccination. This is a clear government responsibility and in this, we will not interfere," Kyodo news agency said quoting Bach as saying in a press conference.

"We will work with the NOCs [National Olympic Committees] to get as many as possible of the participants being vaccinated, but always within the relevant national guidelines," he added.

According to the Japanese government, the country will receive around 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in May and June, which will be enough to vaccinate nearly half of the country's population.

On Thursday, Bach said that the Chinese Olympic Committee offered to provide COVID-19 vaccines for athletes at the Tokyo Games.

The Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are planned to take place from July 23 to August 8 this summer.(UNI)