Sport joins vaccine queue
There are no immediate plans to roll out the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for local sports competitions, the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) has said. Botswana received its first batch of 30,000 COVID-19 vaccines from India and the phase one of the roll out targets frontline workers.
BNSC acting chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said he has no details as to when sportspersons will get the jab, but hinted it could be under phase two.
He, however, said only the active national teams and the 2020 Olympic Games team will be prioritised upon the roll out to sport. “We have requested that the Ministry (of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development) and health authorities that we also need assistance with the vaccine.
However, our priority is with the Olympic team. We have prioritised that the Tokyo Games team and the national teams who will
be active be first to receive the vaccine.
We have held talks with the (relevant) ministries, but we can not say when we will receive the vaccine but the request is that as long it is before the start of the Olympic Games,” he said.
Serufho also said as for the local sports competitions, the BNSC is in talks with the authorities to ensure a much safer return to competitive play. Competitive sport is on halt until April 1.
When the ban on sport was announced, elite football was readying to start. The availability of the vaccine is seen as providing a glimmer of hope to the Premiership, which was last played in March 2020. “Together with the the ministry (of sport) and the Ministry of Health [and Wellness], we have sat down to seek assistance to [the] return of safe play.
We are concluding the discussions and should be submitting to the authorities by the end of this week. Football was not included in the initial roll out of the vaccine because the government said the first batch would arrive March end, and at the time the elite league would have already started.
We are working around (the clock) to see how sport can be best assisted, but the priority remains with the Olympics team,” Serufho said. Since the outbreak of the virus in Botswana in March 2020, sport has recorded two incidents related to the novel coronavirus.
A Jwaneng Galaxy technical member missed a CAF Champions League trip to Seychelles in November, while newly promoted Sua Flamingoes recorded 11 cases, in the process, claiming the life of its head coach, David Bright in January this year.