IOA president Narinder Batra receives first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday in New Delhi. The Commonwealth Games Association of India president Batra and his family took Covisheild Vaccine developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII). Batra informed that he will take the second dose of the vaccine after four weeks.

"My Family (My Wife Chetna, my Brother Hemant and his wife Radhika and my Brother in law Jayant Nanda) and I took COVID-19 vaccination on January 28, 2021 in Batra Hospital New Delhi," Batra said in a statement on Saturday. "We all took Covisheild Vaccine developed by SII in partnership with Oxford University and British -- Swedish Pharma firm AstraZeneca. By God's grace, all 5 of us are doing perfectly well and we will now take the 2nd dose after 4 weeks and as informed our body will develop antibodies in 6 weeks from January 28," he said.

Last week, Batra said that vaccination of the Olympic-bound athletes is the topmost priority of the federation. The IOA chief is confident that a proper plan will be charted "very soon" to put the thought into action. "We are having discussions with all concerned departments including Health Ministry, Sports Ministry and NADA. We are very much on track and we hope very soon will come up with a proper plan for it," Batra told ANI.

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When asked about the timeline he said, "As of now, discussions are on. Once everything is fine-tuned will let you know. As of now, I can only say that vaccination of our athletes is our topmost priority and we are working on it with seriousness." Earlier, Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju had also said that Olympic-bound athletes will be given priority in the vaccination.

The postponed Tokyo Olympics is now scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, while the Paralympics will take place from August 24 to September 5, 2021.