Japan is considering vaccinating about 70,000 volunteers for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to improve the safety of the games amid the coronavirus pandemic, Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa said Tuesday.
Marukawa said in response to parliamentary questioning that officials have already agreed to pursue the idea of vaccinating all volunteers who registered through the Tokyo Games organizing committee to assist at venues and the athletes’ village.
She disclosed the plan at a time when Japan still lags behind other developed countries in providing inoculations, and the large majority of people in the country have yet to be vaccinated with less than 50 days until the opening of the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee has said that U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. will provide vaccines for free to delegations participating in the Tokyo…
