Olympic bound athletes receive second dose of Covid-19 jab

Team Kenya athletes currently in bubble camps at the Moi International Sports Kasarani are the first batch of athletes to receive the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, in the second phase of the roll out campaign by the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Health.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed was at hand to witness the exercise when she paid a visit to the Team Kenya at Kasarani on Wednesday.

“We want to thank CS (Mutahi) Kagwe for providing 2000 vaccines and we have started today. We are hopeful that we will get 1000 more so that all sportsmen and women that need to participate in competitions and championships qualifications get their two doses. I don’t think there are many countries that can tell you today that their athletes are having their second doses of vaccines,” said CS Amina.

Amina says the country’s leadership right from the top are interested in the proper preparation of the Olympics bound team to ensure that Kenya wins more medals at the Olympic Games in Japan.

“We are a sporting nation and therefore we must continue to prepare as if we are going to win all the medals. All is in place to ensure that team Kenya travels to Tokyo in a wonderful environment but also having been well prepared for the games.”

Olympics Kenya is working with the government in Team Kenya preparations. The bubble camp has been set up at Kasarani where currently, the Kenya rugby sevens men’s team Shujaa, the rugby sevens women’s team Lionesses, the volleyball team Malkia Strikers, the boxers and tae kwon do athletes are camping.

They will be joined by the athletics team once their qualifiers are done, and Amina has expressed her satisfaction with the bubble camp set up.

“We are fortunate because we have had a lot of practice. We had golf (Magical Kenya Open and Savanna classic), and we had bubbles that were COVID free and we learnt a lot from them. We sent out our doctors to different events across the world to make sure that they learn and see what’s working and what’s not. What works we adopt and what doesn’t, we improve,” she said.

The Olympic Games will be held in strict bubbles with limited local fans and no international fans.

The games were postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic that continues to disrupt events across the world.