Covid rules ‘a joke’

SUB-CONTRACTORS and volunteers are working inside the athletes village at the Tokyo

Olympics despite not having Covid tests, potentially putting the world’s best competitors at risk, according to volunteers who have spoken to The Mail on Sunday.

They have hit out at the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG), saying monitoring is ‘a joke’ and adding that they have tried and failed to take a test.

Large numbers of volunteers and sub-contractors are operating in the village, which sits next to Tokyo

Bay. But a volunteer, who did not wish to be named, described the system as ‘lax beyond belief’. They added: ‘It’s a joke and we are all amazed by it. There has been no monitoring.’

Another said: ‘It’s the talk of the volunteers. We’re all shocked by it. Nobody is checking when we go in and my friends who are working at Games venues say the same thing.’

TOCOG say they are ‘using all the tools at our disposal’ to ensure those involved ‘take PCR tests as much as possible’ and add that should they find someone who has not been tested regularly they are told to do so ‘immediately’.