Games in ‘difficult’ place after Tokyo virus surge

The Tokyo Paralympics will be held under “very difficult” circumstances, organisers said yesterday, with hospitals in the host city overstretched as Japan battles its worst wave of Covid-19 infections.

With the Paralympics due to start on Tuesday, one Tokyo hospital reportedly declined the organisers’ request to take emergency cases from the Games, putting priority on domestic Covid patients.

“Looking at the medical situation, we cannot help but say we will hold the Paralympics in the middle of a very difficult situation,” said Tokyo 2020 Games delivery officer, Hidemasa Nakamura.

“What do we do if we have a case becoming seriously ill, given the tight situation on hospital beds?

“We need to have a contact flow in line, and include the hospitals and medical facilities in that contact flow.”

Organisers said they would implement Covid protocols for the Paralympics, the same “playbook” used during the Olympics, which ended earlier this month.

Frequent testing and other restrictions, such as limiting the movement of athletes and officials, were proven effective in minimising infection risks, they added.

While the number of athletes and officials travelling from abroad is less than a third of that during the Olympics, the health situation in Japan has worsened with recordhigh daily case numbers being reported, an increase that is being driven by the Delta variant.

Nakamura called for domestic Games officials to avoid eating out or drinking in groups, and pledged to hold thorough testing among local participants.

Japan has extended Covid emergency measures in the capital and other regions that will run through the Games and, like the Olympics, the Paralympics, which run until Sept 5, will take place generally without spectators.

There were 12 new Covid cases confirmed yesterday among Paralympic participants, including one athlete.

The speed and severity of Japan’s Delta-driven infections are overtaking the strategy of targeted cluster tracing that it has favoured over the mass testing used by many nations.

The cabinet office said Japan intended to employ its full daily capacity of about 320,000 PCR tests, or about triple the use now.

“At least in a big city like Tokyo, the cluster methodology won’t work any more,” Kazuaki Shindai, a doctor and public health researcher, said. “If individuals can get more PCR testing, it may be helpful to find out their condition and isolate themselves, and then prevent them from going about.”

Makoto Shimoaraiso, a cabinet official, said that the government wanted to use the full capacity of public and private testing “as much as possible”.