The Chinese Olympic Committee has offered vaccine doses for participants in this summer's Tokyo Olympic Games and next year's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday.

"The IOC has received a kind offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, hosts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, to make additional vaccine doses available to participants in both editions of the Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022," IOC President Thomas Bach told a virtual session of the Olympic body.

Bach did not provide details on the offer, including how many doses it will include.

"The Chinese Olympic Committee is ready in cooperation with the IOC to make these additional doses available... either via collaboration with international partners or directly in countries where agreements regarding Chinese vaccines are in place," he said, adding "the IOC will pay for the additional doses of vaccines not only for Olympic but also Paralympic teams."

A significant number of Olympic teams have already been vaccinated in line with national vaccination guidelines, Bach said.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are now scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8, but there are fears they will have to go ahead without international spectators due to the pandemic situation.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be held on February 4-20, 2022.

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On March 7, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi revealed that China is ready to work with the IOC to provide vaccines for Olympians.

(With input from Reuters)