April 19 – With the 2022 World Cup approaching rapidly and the Covid-19 pandemic still raging around the world, hosts Qatar are seeking coronavirus jabs for all visitors to next year’s global finals.
The Gulf State said it’s in talks with coronavirus vaccine makers to ensure all visitors to the 2022 World Cup are vaccinated, allowing the tournament to be staged in an environment free of Covid-19.
“Right now there are programmes under development to provide vaccination to all the attendees of the World Cup,” said foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during a virtual conference. “We will be able, hopefully, to host a Covid-free event. We also hope that globally the pandemic will start to go down and disappear.”
Qatar has administered 1.2 million jabs to date, but the country has recently experienced a spike in coronavirus cases, with 823 new cases and six deaths in the last 24 hours according to the local ministry of health. In total, 194,930 people have tested positive in Qatar since the start of the pandemic, resulting in 382 deaths.
With football largely still being played behind closed doors, concern is growing that the 2022 World Cup might also become affected by the global health crisis. Qatar expects more than a million visitors for the showpiece tournament.
Last year, Euro 2020 and the Copa America were among the major tournaments that had to be postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Both competitions have been rescheduled for this summer, but no formal decision has been taken over fan attendance.
To date, the African Nations Championship in January and the Club World Cup in February have been the only international tournaments where fans attended matches, respecting social distancing, mask wearing and other sanitary measures.
The 2022 World Cup will kick off on November 21 and culminate almost a month later with the final on December 18.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1731772081labto1731772081ofdlr1731772081owedi1731772081sni@o1731772081fni1731772081