Olympic athletes should be prioritised for coronavirus jab - Pound

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Tokyo, Jan 6: Olympic athletes should be among those prioritised for a coronavirus vaccine so that the Tokyo Games can go ahead, according to International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound.

The rescheduled Games are set to get underway on July 23, a whole calendar year after the original starting date, despite concerns over rising COVID-19 cases in host country Japan.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will decide on Thursday (January 7) whether to implement a new state of emergency in Tokyo amid growing calls to take action, which could again put the Olympics in jeopardy.

IOC chief Pound, the organisation's longest-serving member, believes the best way of ensuring it goes ahead is to vaccinate all athletes beforehand.

"In Canada where we might have 300 or 400 athletes - to take 300 or 400 vaccines out of several million in order to have Canada represented at an international event of this stature, character and level - I don't think there would be any kind of a public outcry about that," Pound told Sky News.

"It's a decision for each country to make and there will be people saying they are jumping the queue but I think that is the most realistic way of it going ahead."

Costs for the Olympics have already increased by $2.8billion (£2.1bn) due to measures being put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.