Sport tackles Covid-19: How Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and tennis chiefs at Wimbledon are helping the NHS and vaccine roll-out
Football clubs Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool as well as Wimbledon tennis chiefs have pledged to join the fight against Covid-19.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has offered to put up NHS staff at the Copthorne Hotel adjoining the club’s Stamford Bridge home.
Tottenham bosses have made their stadium available for administering vaccines, as have Liverpool.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has also offered to be a vaccination hub.
The Wimbledon Championships venue, like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Liverpool’s Anfield, were used as mass-testing centres earlier in the pandemic.
Chelsea’s offer to accommodate NHS staff follows a similar offer to medics last year.
The initiative is aimed at doctors and nurses working long hours who may therefore have difficulty getting home, or whose journey would require a long commute on public transport.
Bed and breakfast is included in the offer, which is initially open until mid-February.
“With England back in lockdown, Chelsea Football Club is once more providing accommodation at Stamford Bridge to the National Health Service,” the club said.
“Club owner Roman Abramovich will again be covering the costs of providing the accommodation, which includes bed and breakfast, in the Copthorne Hotel.
“Millennium Hotels and Resorts, who manage the hotel, are supportive and assisting the club in providing this service to the NHS.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson placed England into a third national lockdown this week amid a surge in cases.
Other sporting venues to be used as vaccination hubs include Epson Downs racecourse in Surrey and Bristol’s Ashton Gate stadium.
Several UK-based Formula 1 teams joined the national effort at the start of the pandemic by offering to make and supply ventilators.