At least 75% of athletes who will stay in Athletes Village during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or are scheduled to be inoculated before the Games start, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said Wednesday.
Bach also indicated the IOC was willing to provide medical personnel to support the medical operations of each participating nation or territory's organizing committee. Such medical personnel will likely be nurses from overseas, a step taken in consideration of Japan's medical care system.
Bach made the comments Wednesday during an online meeting held to discuss how the Games would be run. Participants in the meeting, which was held on the opening day of the IOC's Coordination Commission meeting, also included Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.
While Bach indicated "we have good reasons to believe" the vaccination rate of athletes "will be well above 80%" when the Games begin, he also mentioned the issue of additional medical staff being dispatched to Japan. Bach said the IOC supports the implementation of strict measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, and that doing so would ensure the Games are "safe and secure" for the athletes and the Japanese public.
Bach did not indicate how many medical personnel would be sent to Japan.
Hashimoto said organizers would gratefully accept this offer, and that she would like to hear more details about what kind of support would be available.
According to Games sources, these additional medical staffers will likely handle duties such as taking care of athletes at Athletes Village and at competition venues.
The Medical Practitioners' Law stipulates that only people holding a Japanese medical practitioner license can conduct medical activity in this nation. However, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry believes it is conceivable that activities by doctors from other countries could be approved provided that such activities be for an appropriate objective, such as lessening the burden on medical workers in Japan, as long as the athletes who receive checkups or treatment from these doctors give their consent.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, medical crews from overseas were permitted to provide the minimum medical treatment necessary during what was a state of emergency.
On May 6, the IOC announced it would provide vaccines developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and Germany's BioNTech SE to athlete delegations from nations and territories participating in the Tokyo Games.
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