Despite a state of emergency being declared in Tokyo, the host city of the Olympic Games this summer, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has remained committed to making sure the games continue as scheduled.
Tokyo announced today that it would be transitioning into a Stage 4 shutdown. The city intends to lift the state of emergency following the city’s move back to Stage 3. One of the indicators of a decrease to Stage 3 includes the number of weekly infections becoming less than 25 cases per 100,000 people. The state of emergency declaration is currently slated to last one month, ending on February 7th.
The Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, when asked on how the state of emergency would impact the Olympics, stated that the IOC and organizers of the event would continue working together to ensure that the games occur as scheduled.
A spokesman for the games said: “This declaration offers an opportunity for Tokyo 2020 to plan for a safe and secure Games this summer.”
The IOC had a similar statement, saying:
“The IOC has full confidence in the Japanese authorities and the measures they are taking. Together with our Japanese partners, we continue to be fully concentrated and committed to the safe and successful delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this summer.”
Tokyo’s latest data on the coronavirus shows a recent surge in positive cases, with nearly 2,500 positive cases being reported today. This is up from just 1,591 positive cases yesterday.
The Olympic games are currently slated to kick off on July 23, 2021, following their postponement from last summer.
If the Olympics go ahead Japan will need to be paid significant extra money for the additional costs of hosting. Host countries always trade off huge costs against prestige and tourism benefits but in this instance they won’t be getting any immediate boost to tourism and probably no spectators at events. I don’t think Japan signed up for that and unless the IOC stump up a big chunk of cash to offset the lost income and all the additional covid related costs I think Japan would have to cancel. If the covid situation is not under control by then it will be cancelled anyway.
Uh Japan already had 31 million tourists per year unrelated to the Olympics…a prestigious destination in it’s own right.
18 billion dollars out of the 25 billion dollars this fiasco is costing is public funds…so as you can imagine, the large majority of the public are not happy.
At least Esports can still happen remotely…
I’ll say no tourists allowed and MAyBE they allow some Japanese spectators with limited capacity. No way they cancel it just look at how hard other sports have tried to keep the TV money flowing
Wait and see