Vaccination For Tokyo-Bound Athletes To Start Soon: Indian Olympic Association

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary General Rajeev Mehta on Wednesday informed that the vaccination process for the Olympic-bound athletes will start soon in the country. "We will start the vaccination process soon so that our athletes are safe. A lot is invested in them and we want to be sure that they are safe," said Mehta during an online seminar organised by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and IOA on the occasion of 100 days to the Tokyo Olympics.

Tokyo Olympics will go ahead from July 23-August 8 this year. The Games were slated to be held last year, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

India has reported the highest-ever single-day spike in COVID-19 cases with over 1.84 lakh new cases and more than 1,000 deaths in the last 24 hours. And with the ever-rising COVID-19 cases, vaccination of Olympic-bound athletes has become the talk of the town.

Union Youth Affair and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju is confident of the athletes bringing laurels for the country in the upcoming mega event.

"India must cross double digits. Our athletes are fully prepared and I think this will be India's best Olympic so far," said Rijiju.

Meanwhile, SAI has issued a new SOP in view of the Covid-19 situation in the country. The SOP includes regular RT-PCR tests of athletes on a weekly basis to monitor their health.

Those contracting COVID-19 are immediately being moved to hospitals to ensure the best treatment and their complete safety and to isolate them from athletes who are negative. SAI centres where Olympic-bound athletes are training have been colour coded in a way that Olympic-bound athletes and trainers are not in any physical contact with other people on campus like the administrative staff.

Further, staggered training timings have been drawn up to ensure physical distancing of athletes, without disrupting their training.