Tokyo organisers say Olympics will be safe and secure
With less than nine weeks until the start of the Olympics in Tokyo, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sought to calm fears in Japan that the Games would present an additional burden to a medical system already strained by the pandemic. Rounding o a threeday meeting to discuss Olympic preparations and coronavirus countermeasures, ocials said more than 80 per cent of residents of the Olympic Village would be vaccinated ahead of July 23, when the Olympics start.
The global sporting event, which was postponed by a year due to the COVID19 pandemic, faces mounting opposition from the public.
“I can say it’s now clearer than ever that these Games would be safe for everyone participating and, importantly, safe for the people of Japan,” International Olympic committee (IOC) vicepresident John Coates, who is in charge of preparations, said at the end of the meeting.
He added that additional medical personnel would be part of the foreign Olympic delegations to support the medical operations and the implementation of the COVID19 countermeasures at the Games.
Organisers are also making arrangements to halve the number of people coming to Japan as part of foreign Olympic delegations, broadcaster NHK reported.
Some 94,000 people are expected to make their way to Japan for the Games, down from an initial estimate of 200,000, NHK said citing unnamed government sources.