Athletes to get vaccines amid rising discontent

TOKYO • Japan is gearing up to offer Covid-19 vaccinations to around 2,500 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and staff, using shots donated for the Games amid public anger over the slow pace of the country's vaccine roll-out.

With less than three months until the Olympics begin on July 23, Japan is struggling to contain a surge in coronavirus cases and a majority of the population want the event cancelled or postponed for a second time.

Only about 2.6 per cent of the Japanese population has now been vaccinated, and reports last month that athletes would be prioritised prompted anger on social media.

But last week, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said they would donate doses of their Covid-19 vaccine via the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to help inoculate athletes and their delegations participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Officials at the Japan Olympic Committee and Japan Paralympic committee said yesterday they are currently asking each athletic federation how many people want to be vaccinated and when this should take place.

A report in the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said vaccinations could start as early as next month, but the officials said the timing, as well as other details, such as who would give the inoculations, remained unclear.

Japanese regulations say only doctors or nurses can give the shots, which has slowed the country's overall roll-out. Dentists also gained permission last month.

The IOC, Games organisers and the Japanese government have repeatedly vowed that the Olympics will take place as scheduled, although criticism remains rampant both at home and abroad.

On Tuesday, a New York Times article titled, A Sports Event Shouldn't Be A Superspreader, called for the Games to be cancelled. "It's time to listen to science and halt the dangerous charade," it added.

Tennis star Rafael Nadal has also raised doubts about his participation in the Games, saying on Tuesday that he has to be flexible and cannot give a clear answer until he organises his schedule for the year.

The Spaniard, who won a singles gold in Beijing 2008 and added a doubles title in Rio de Janeiro eight years later, said he is yet to firm up his plans on travelling to Tokyo.

"Honestly I can't give you a clear answer because I don't know," he said. "In a normal world I'll never think about missing Olympics. Under these circumstances, I don't know. Let's see what's going on in the next couple of months."

Golf Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama said that he has "mixed feelings" about holding the Games given a virus surge in his home country.

The governor of Ibaraki prefecture, which is to host some Olympic football events, said a further postponement or outright cancellation should be considered if the pandemic worsened.

"I don't think we can gain the understanding of the international community, let alone Japan, if we were to host the Olympics in the midst of a medical collapse," Governor Kazuhiko Oigawa said.

He added that he declined a request from the Tokyo 2020 organising committee for hospital beds to be reserved for the athletes.

Meanwhile, a top executive of Tokyo 2020 sponsor Toyota Motor Corp said officials of the Japanese company felt "conflicted" over the desire to see the Olympics succeed and public concerns about holding the event during a pandemic.

"As sponsors, it breaks our heart to see public discontent aimed at athletes," the automaker's operating officer, Jun Nagata, told an earnings briefing yesterday.

"To be honest, we are conflicted every day over what the best course of action is."

REUTERS