COVID presence at Tokyo Olympics village raises concerns

Tokyo: The testing positive for COVID in one of the persons involved with the games at the Tokyo Olympics village raised concerns among organisers as the event is all set to begin next week.

The infected person is reportedly one of those involved in organising the Games, arrived from abroad recently, according to a report published in The Guardian. The event authorities refused to reveal the identity or nationality of the person citing security concerns.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, scheduled from 23 July to 8 August, was postponed last year because of the pandemic. Now, it is planned to conduct mostly without spectators and under strict quarantine rules, and athletes are only arriving.

The general public in Japan is not very enthusiastic about the games as it is going to be run amidst a resurgence of the pandemic. In addition to this, there is anxiety that arrival from foreign could turn the event into a super spreader. This could put more strain on the medical system of the country.

The International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, had said three days ago that a safe and secure Tokyo Olympics would be a show of global solidarity during the pandemic. That day Japan recorded the highest number of infections in the last six months.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics faced many setbacks, including severe budget overruns.