Has the sword of Damocles constituted by the coronavirus already started to fall on the head of the Olympics? With less than a week before the Tokyo Games, which will take place from July 23 to August 8, the concern is great. The first two cases of athletes positive for Covid-19 were recorded among residents of the Olympic village, organizers announced on Sunday. A third sick athlete living outside the village was also discovered.
The nationalities and disciplines exercised by these athletes have not been specified. Since the arrival of the delegations, four athletes have tested positive for Covid-19, specifies Tokyo-2020, which will communicate each day the results of the tests carried out daily. The capacity of the Olympic Village is 17,000 people. But will reside there at the most at the same time that 6,700 people, according to the calendar of competitions. This peak of attendance should be reached in the middle of the Games, at the beginning of August.
For the moment marginal cases
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also confirmed that one of its members, the South Korean Seung Min Ryu, tested positive on his arrival in the archipelago. Tuesday and Wednesday, the 102 members of the body are to meet in a palace in the Japanese capital for the general assembly of the organization. Saturday, the organizers announced the first case in the village, but it was not a sportsman, according to the report updated Sunday.
Five days before the opening of the Olympics, cases are multiplying, however, while remaining marginal in relation to the total number of participants. On Saturday, IOC President Thomas Bach indicated that, among the 15,000 athletes, Olympic delegations and journalists who arrived in Japan since July 1, 15 people had tested positive, a “very low rate” of 0.1%.
Almost all of the Olympic events will take place behind closed doors and the tens of thousands of participants – from athletes to officials, including journalists from abroad – are subject to draconian restrictions due to health risks. But these “countermeasures” are not enough to reassure the population in Japan, as Tokyo recorded 1,410 additional cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, the highest daily total since January.