Vaccination rollout for SA’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes begins on Monday

The Covid-19 vaccination programme for SA’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes will begin in earnest on Monday, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) said in a statement on Friday night.

A test run was held at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital this past week where 31 accredited members of Team SA were vaccinated.

The rollout for athletes and other accredited team members including coaches, managers and officials will take place in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Durban.

The Sascoc statement did not clarify which vaccinations would be given, but TimesLIVE understands it is the Johnson & Johnson one, which requires a single dose.

Vaccinations are not compulsory for athletes and officials, who will be allowed into Tokyo. Everyone will be subjected to regular testing.

“The rollout of vaccinations to Team SA is independent of and does not disrupt nor place any burden on the government’s programme to roll out vaccinations to the SA public,” Sascoc said.

The International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee recently announced they would make vaccine doses available to all athletes and officials participating at the Tokyo Games.

Sascoc had arranged the rollout with the help of the national departments of sport, arts and culture and health.