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nternational Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, has confirmed the IOC is in discussions with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and pharmaceutical manufacturers over sourcing a supply of COVID-19 vaccines for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021.

This comes after the first COVID-19 vaccine has cleared interim clinical trials, the Pfizer vaccine, reportedly proving 90% effective in preventing contraction of COVID-19.

Bach said he will not rule out seeking a supply of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the safe and successful staging of the Olympics next year.

“We are in contact with the World Health Organisation, and with a number of manufacturers to be informed of what is happening in this respect,” Bach said following an IOC executive board meeting.

“There are a number of different options under consideration about how vaccines can be made available, but first of all the first wave of vaccination must be for the people in need, for the high-risk groups, for the nurses, for doctors, and everybody who is keeping our societies alive.

“In this context we will have further discussions with all the experts, the manufacturers, with the governments, with the health authorities to see how, with respect to vaccinations, we can ensure the safe environment in the best possible way for everybody in Tokyo,” he said.

Discussing the potential number of spectators the Games could hold with the announcement regarding a potential vaccine, Bach said test events in Japan such as an international gymnastics competition in Tokyo last weekend, give confidence to having fans attend.

“I am sorry I will not be able to give you the exact number of spectators, but having seen now the different number of test events in Japan I think we can become more and more confident we will have a reasonable number of spectators at the Olympic venues,” Bach said.

“How many and under which conditions of course depends very much on future developments,” he said.

Bach is set to visit Tokyo next week for the first time since the Olympic Games were postponed in March due to COVID-19, and was asked if they would be discussing potentially cancelling the Olympics in Tokyo, to which he simply said: “No”.