Bach confirmed the offer during the 137th IOC Session, held virtually today.

"The IOC has received a kind offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, the host of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games," Bach said.

"The offer is to make additional vaccine doses available to participants for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.

"The Chinese Olympic Committee is ready in cooperation with the IOC to make these additional doses available in two ways.

"Either via collaboration with international partners or directly in the numerous countries where agreements regarding Chinese vaccines are already in place.

"The IOC will pay for these additional doses of vaccines for the Olympic and Paralympic team.

"For each of these additional doses, the IOC will also pay for two doses more that can be made available to population in that country."

Bach said that a significant number of Olympic teams have already been vaccinated in line with their national guidelines.

He added that many others had also received the commitment of their Governments or are in very positive discussions.

Bach claimed the organisation continued to support the fair distribution of vaccines for all countries, confirming the organisation had signed up to the vaccine equity declaration of the World Health Organisation.

Bach said the latest developments formed part of efforts to host the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in a safe and secure way.

China has largely rolled out two vaccines abroad, known as Sinovac and Sinopharm.

A reported 25 countries are using vaccines produced by China.

The BBC has reported that the vaccines developed by China are designed to killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.

Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, by comparison, are mRNA vaccines.

Their vaccines see part of the coronavirus' genetic code is injected into the body, triggering the body to begin making viral proteins, but not the whole virus.

This trains the immune system to attack the virus.

The Sinopharm vaccine was given to UAE Team Emirates cyclists and staff in January, after the United Arab Emirates Health Ministry approved the vaccine for emergency use.

The IOC repeatedly said it will not jump the queue ahead of those who need a vaccination most and has insisted it will not be mandatory for athletes to compete at the Games.

Countries such as Lithuania, Hungary, Serbia and Israel are already in the process of vaccinating their Olympic and Paralympic delegations, however.

Mexican athletes were confirmed to have been placed in a priority group for vaccinations last month.

Other National Olympic Committees, including those in Germany, Canada, Britain and Italy, who have decided not to ask for their athletes to be given priority for vaccinations, will hope that vaccines will be available ahead of the Games.