Pfizer and BioNTech to Provide COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for Olympic Athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Olympic Committee to donate doses of the companies’ COVID-19 Vaccine to help vaccinate athletes, and their delegations, participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, which are scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Under … Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to donate doses of the companies’ COVID-19 Vaccine to help vaccinate athletes, and their delegations, participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, which are scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021.
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The announcement comes at a time when many countries are struggling to acquire enough vaccine to protect health workers and older adults, who are at highest risk of contracting Covid-19 and, in the case of the latter, of suffering severe disease if they do.
In fact, the host nation, Japan, is trailing many of its economic peers in its vaccination efforts, having protected only about 2% of its population so far. African countries are trailing the world, with the continent only receiving 1% of the vaccines administered worldwide.
Pfizer and BioNTech are to donate COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate athletes and officials taking part in this summer s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
The two companies and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
announced on Thursday that delivery of vaccine doses will begin later this month with the aim to ensure participating delegations receive second doses ahead of arrivals in Tokyo.
The Olympic Games, which were scheduled to take place in 2020 but were postponed due to the pandemic, will kick off on July 23.
The IOC noted that many governments are already working on ensuring their athletes and officials are vaccinated and that the new Memorandum of Understanding with Pfizer/BioNTech adds to these efforts.
May 2, 2021 Share
As the Tokyo Olympics approach, one of the foremost priorities of the organisers is to ensure that the Games are conducted in a safe environment for the athletes and the rest of the supporting staff. Towards this end, the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan have agreed upon a number of measures for ensuring the safe organisations of the Games.
These measures are stated in the second and revised edition of the Tokyo 2020 Playbook which was released on April 28, 2021. The revised Playbook sets out the responsibilities of athletes and team officials, and should be considered alongside wider information received from your National Olympic Committee (NOC)/National Paralympic Committee (NPC).
Franck Robichon / Getty Images
Originally published on April 28, 2021 7:39 am
The organizers of Japan s Summer Olympics, due to start just weeks from now, say they will administer daily coronavirus tests to athletes and will decide in June on what is a safe number of spectators.
At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and representatives of the other organizers discussed measures to keep the coronavirus in check during the games, which begin July 23. The IOC is fully committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, Bach said in his opening remarks.