BAA: Boston Marathon participants must be vaccinated

BOSTON, Mass. (NBCNC) — The Boston Marathon will once again have 30,000 runners when it returns to Patriots’ Day in 2022 for its 126th running, the race’s organizers said Tuesday.

All those runners will need to be fully vaccinated, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) said in a statement.

This year’s marathon was run in October for the first time and with a smaller field of 20,000 people.

The 30,000 participants slated for the 2022 race, scheduled for Monday, April 18, is a return to the size the race has been in recent years.

BAA president and CEO Tom Grilk noted in the announcement that the vaccination requirement is meant to help allow as many runners take part safely.

In a statement, Grilk said: "We had a 93% vaccination rate among our 125th Boston Marathon participants and want to do our part to continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as we continue our return to racing".