Vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech will donate doses to inoculate athletes and officials preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, the IOC said on Thursday, May 6.

Delivery of doses is set to begin this month to give Olympic delegations time to be fully vaccinated with a second shot before arriving in Tokyo for the games, which open on July 23.

It’s the second major vaccination deal for the International Olympic Committee. An agreement was announced in March between the IOC and Olympic officials in China to buy and distribute Chinese vaccines ahead of the Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games.

The new Pfizer offer gives the IOC greater coverage worldwide ahead of Tokyo with most countries yet to authorize emergency use of Chinese vaccines.

“We are inviting the athletes and participating delegations of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games to lead by example and accept the vaccine where and when possible,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement.

Indian archers to miss Swiss World Cup

India’s Olympic-bound archers will not get to compete in the Stage 2 World Cup in Lausanne as their short-term visa application has been rejected by the Switzerland Embassy.

India has been battling a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced many countries to ban travellers from India.

The Indian archers will now directly compete in the Stage 3 World Cup in Paris which will be the last Olympic qualification event for the Indian women’s recurve team. The seven-day competition will begin on June 23.

“Swiss Embassy did not allow any short-term visa and we had little time for the Stage 2 World Cup (May 17-23). Our focus is solely on the Paris World Cup now,” Archery Association of India secretary general Pramod Chandurkar told PTI.

India so far have men’s team and women’s individual berths for Tokyo. The national federation may also seek a relaxation in the 10-day quarantine rule for its archers when they reach Paris. “We are mulling to write to the French federation to allow the archers to travel at least for practice during the 10-day quarantine,” he said.

Chandurkar further said that the federation would also send the compound team to Paris. The team had missed out on World Cup Stage 1 following their head coach’s “false positive report”.