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Due to the reimposition of the Corona Emergency in Japan, Olympic organizers have decided on a spectator exclusion. The host made the announcement on Thursday.
After the renewed imposition of the Corona emergency for Tokyo, the Olympic organizers have decided to exclude all spectators from the competitions in Japan’s capital. The Japanese hosts made the announcement Thursday after consultations with the International Olympic Committee. “We had no other choice,” said organization chief Seiko Hashimoto.
“We had no choice”
Until the very end, Olympic organizers had held on to their plans to allow up to 10,000 fans from within the country into the arenas for each competition. That hope has now been dashed. In Tokyo and in three neighboring prefectures, the arenas will remain empty during the Games. Foreign spectators had already been banned from entering in March.
Prior to the last-minute consultations of the organizers on Thursday, the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had decided to again declare a state of emergency for the duration of the Olympic Games. The measure will be in effect from next Monday until provisionally Aug. 22, it said. The Summer Games in Tokyo are scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8. Reason for the meanwhile fourth state of emergency for Tokyo are again clearly rising infection numbers.
Citizens to stay at home
With the state of emergency, the government primarily wants to prevent restaurants and bars from serving alcohol. The singing of karaoke is also to be prevented in order to control the spread of the virus. Citizens are to stay at home if possible. Many people in Japan fear that the Games could become a super-spread event. Japan’s Olympic organizers and the IOC have so far always stressed that everything will proceed “safely.”
IOC President Thomas Bach arrived in the Olympic city Thursday and entered a three-day quarantine at a five-star hotel downtown. Responsibility will be demonstrated and “all measures necessary to ensure safe Games for Japan’s population and participants will be supported,” Bach affirmed at the start of deliberations on the spectator issue.
On the day of its arrival, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 896 new cases of infection. This means that for 19 days now, the number of new infections has been higher in each case than on the same day the previous week.
— source: hp/news agencies/picture: pixabay.com
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