Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Chief Narinder Batra on Monday said that the gap between two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for Olympic-bound athletes and officials has been set to four weeks by the Ministry of Health.
He said that he has communicated about it to the all National Sports Federations (NSF).
“All NSFs whose Athletes have Qualified for Tokyo Olympics. Letter has been issued by Ministry of Health Government of India, that in the case of Tokyo Bound Athletes and officals, the 2nd dose of vaccination will be done after 4 weeks of 1st dose of Vaccination,” Batra said in a statement.
Earlier in May, a government panel had suggested that the dosage interval of Serum Insititute of India’s Covishield vaccine should be increased to 12-16 weeks but the gap between the two doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is four weeks.
The IOA on Sunday had informed that 120 athletes and 27 para-athletes have so far received at least one dose of the vaccine while 62 athletes are fully vaccinated, including four para-athletes.
After being postponed in 2020, the Tokyo Games will get underway on July 23.