Tokyo 2020 relay cancelled across Osaka
TOKYO: The torch relay for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics will not take place on roads across Osaka Prefecture next week due to a surge in coronavirus infections, Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said yesterday.
As Osaka has been struggling with record numbers of new Covid-19 cases in recent days, Yoshimura said at a press conference the relay cannot be staged on April 13 and 14, given that he has requested residents of the entire prefecture to refrain from nonessential outings.
Toshiro Muto, CEO of the Tokyo Games organising committee, said the committee supports Yoshimura’s decision. Based on a request from the prefecture, he said torchbearers will run at the Expo ‘70 Commemorative Park in the city of Suita, instead of public roads where large crowds may gather.
The nationwide torch relay that started on March 25 in the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima was scheduled to pass through all of Japan’s 47 prefectures before the Olympic opening ceremony on July 23.
Osaka’s cancellation casts another shadow over the organising committee’s efforts to convince the Japanese public that the Olympics can be staged safely amid the pandemic following their one-year postponement.
The local organisers had decided to cancel the routes going through the city of Osaka after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government designated the prefecture and two other areas for stricter measures against Covid-19.
But the decision to cancel the event not just in the city but also across Osaka Prefecture came as it confirmed a record 878 additional coronavirus cases yesterday. The prefecture decided to declare a medical state of emergency due to the increased strain on its health care system.
With less than four months until the opening of the Olympics, many people in Japan have been skeptical about holding the Summer Games amid the pandemic.
Japan reported yesterday more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases for a single day, the highest in over two months.
According to a Kyodo News poll last month, 23.2 percent of respondents wanted the Olympics to go ahead this summer while 39.8 percent wanted them to be cancelled.