Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is set to meet with the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committees next week to specifically discuss coronavirus countermeasures for the world’s largest sporting event.
Earlier this year the International Olympic Committee postponed the 2020 edition of the quadrennial Summer Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic, shifting the competition to July 2021.
Now less than a year away, Suga says that ‘it is necessary to comprehensively consider and coordinate a wide range of issues’ during his meet next week, which will also include the Tokyo Metropolitan government, per NHK.
One issue on the agenda according to Kyodo is that of border control and protocols for the nearly 11,00 athletes expected to arrive from 146 different nations next year.
The meeting is coming a week after more than half of nearly 13,000 Japanese companies surveyed said they are opposed to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralupc Games being held next summer.
In the online survey by Tokyo Shoko Research covering 12,857 companies, 27.8 percent said they want the Tokyo Games to be canceled while 25.8 percent said the sporting event should be postponed again. (Japan Times)
More than 60,000 coronavirus infections have been reported in Japan, including over 18,000 cases in Tokyo, and the Tokyo government has raised its alert for the pandemic to the highest of four levels, meaning “infections are spreading.” (Japan Times)