LAUSANNE, Switzerland 鈥� Olympic teams were urged Friday by the IOC to request more Chinese and Pfizer vaccines ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, which will be held in the country where the coronavirus outbreak started.
听 a vaccine rollout program with Chinese authorities for athletes and officials in March. Chinese vaccines were bought by the IOC and also made available for delegations heading to the Tokyo Olympics from countries which had approved them for use.
In May, vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech donated doses of their product to Tokyo Olympic teams. That scheme has now been extended to include Beijing, the IOC said Friday.
About 100 countries are likely to compete at the Beijing Olympics, which open Feb. 4. There were 205 national teams in Tokyo. Vaccination is encouraged but not mandatory.
鈥淚 would like to encourage those National Olympic Committees who require additional vaccine doses 鈥� to inform our NOC relations department as soon as possible so that we can put the necessary arrangements in place,鈥� IOC president in a letter to Olympic teams.
Health officials in China said this week that more than 1 billion people, or 72% of the country's 1.4 billion citizens, have been fully vaccinated.
Still, the Beijing Games are expected to be organized within the same health security limits that applied for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Bach noted the 鈥渆xcellent cooperation that we are enjoying with our Chinese partners and friends, as well as the relevant Chinese health authorities.鈥�
Though Bach鈥檚 letter referred to 鈥渢he athletes of these Olympic Games that will send this message of the unifying power of sport to the world.鈥� It did not acknowledge global concerns about human rights issues in China.
Activists have tried to brand it the 鈥淕enocide Games鈥� because of China鈥檚 detention of Muslim minority Uyghur people in prison camps in Xinjiang province.
听 the IOC is a politically neutral sports organization which cannot address issues that not even the United Nations has solved.
His letter was published on the day Beijing organizers unveiled their Games slogan 鈥淭ogether for a Shared Future.鈥�
___
More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The Associated Press
