Olympians, Paralympians to be vaccinated under Phase 1b: Sports Minister

Australian Olympic and Paralympic athletes as well as their support staff will receive the COVID-19 vaccine under the existing Phase 1b allocation of the national rollout, Sports Minister Richard Colbeck told Sky News. The Morrison government confirmed on Wednesday all athletes and support staff will receive the vaccination ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in July. Minister Colbeck said the Australian Olympic Committee will supply the vaccines through a private contractor, but the allocation of both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will be made as part of the national rollout. “The decision’s been made by National Cabinet to bring the Olympians, Paralympians and support crews into category 1b as a part of that rollout,” he said. The sports minister said his expectation was the athletes and support staff will undergo a quarantine process which will be “similar to everyone else”. The quarantine program will look more like the system introduced for the Australian Open athletes who quarantined in hotels, rather than a hub-style which was adopted for AFL athletes in 2020, according to the minister. “It’ll be much more like an Australian Open type exercise,” he said. “It will be very much be a hotel quarantine type of system”. Mr Colbeck said all discussions around quarantine will be conducted between the states and the AOC, but confirmed returning athletes would not be considered part of each state’s respective cap for returning Australians. “The returning athletes are not within the caps that we have, they are a separate process which is exactly what happened with the Australian Open”.