The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) has confirmed that it has agreed to take up an International Olympic Committee (IOC) offer of Pfizer-BioNTech dose of the vaccine, reports insidethegames.biz.
The rollout has been discussed with the South African Government and will not impact the general public's access to jabs, the SASCOC claims.
More than 55,500 people have died from COVID-19 in South Africa, while a variant of the virus first detected in the country continues to spread worldwide and cause serious disruption. South Africans are also unable to travel to some places because of the variant.
South Africa has inoculate just one percent of its population, but the SASCOC insists the athletes' jabs will "not disrupt nor place any burden" on the Government's plan to vaccinate South African citizens.
"Engagement with Government to vaccinate our athletes had long since commenced," said Ravi Govender, acting Chief Executive of the SASCOC.
"The offer from the IOC and IPC (International Paralympic Committee) is therefore in line with SASCOC's position that we take every precaution to ensure the safety of our athletes in delivering Team SA to the Tokyo Games.