The IOC intends to reassure the Japanese population that the Olympics will be safe in terms of health. – Eugene Hoshiko / AP / SIPA
The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will arrive in Tokyo on July 12 for the final Olympic Games coordination operations, after postponing a visit scheduled for this week due to the state of health emergency in Japan, an official said. Olympic.
In a letter to parties concerned with the organization on Wednesday, John Coates, IOC Vice President, confirmed the Olympic movement’s determination to organize a “safe and secure” Games, despite the fears of part of the Japanese population because of Covid-19. “The next steps on the organizational front (…) include my arrival in Tokyo on June 15 to join our team already in the field. From July 12, after the arrival of President Bach, we will enter into full-fledged Games coordination operations, ”said John Coates.
Ten days ago, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee announced the postponement indefinitely of a visit to Japan by IOC President Thomas Bach which was scheduled for May 17 and 18 due to the increase in the number of cases. of Covid-19 in Japan and the extension of the state of health emergency. “We are all going through a difficult period since the start of the pandemic and this summer the whole world will have its eyes on us and on Japan,” wrote the vice president.
A little more than two months before the opening of the Olympics which had been postponed for a year in 2020 because of the pandemic, Tokyo and other Japanese departments remain subject to a state of health emergency. Most Japanese want the Olympics to be postponed again or canceled, polls show. Japan is currently suffering from a new wave of infections and authorities are strongly criticized for the slowness of the national vaccination campaign.
94,000 people will come from abroad
But the organizers of the Games say that strict measures, including the establishment of a health “bubble”, regular tests and the ban on spectators coming from abroad enacted at the end of March, will guarantee the safety of the event.
Local media reported on Thursday that the number of foreign participants in the Olympics (July 23-Aug 8) and Paralympics (Aug 24-Sept 5) would be halved from initial forecasts. According to their information, some 94,000 people (athletes and members of their management, official representatives and the media) should come from abroad for the occasion, against about 200,000 people expected at the start.