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Post by Admin on Jun 22, 2021 22:02:55 GMT
With the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics fast approaching, there have been warnings from medical experts about the possible spread of Covid at the Games. The Olympics begin on 23 July, and organisers say up to 10,000 domestic fans will be permitted at venues. The Paralympics starts on 24 August, with its spectator numbers to be confirmed by 16 July, Experts have said the daily infection rate in the host city of Tokyo needs to fall below 100 in order to hold the Games safely. On 21 June, the city's health authorities reported 236 new infections, with an average over the last seven days of just under 400 new cases a day. The steep fall from mid-May in Tokyo has now levelled off, broadly matching the national picture. At the peak of infections in May, hospitals in many areas were overwhelmed, with large parts of Japan under a state of emergency, giving the authorities greater powers to enforce restrictions. There will be specific measures put in place in Tokyo, such as limits on bars, when the Games get under way. How many people have been vaccinated? A mass vaccination campaign was launched in the two biggest cities, Tokyo and Osaka, as infections rose. But to date, only about 16% of the country has been vaccinated. That's about the same proportion as those who've had one dose in India. More than half the population of the UK, US and Germany have had one dose. Japan only started vaccinating people in February, later than most other developed nations. The Pfizer jab was, for some months, the only approved vaccine in Japan. This process took longer because Japan insisted on doing its own trials alongside the tests done internationally.
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Post by Admin on Jul 4, 2021 19:55:45 GMT
A member of the Serbian Olympic rowing team has tested positive for COVID-19 while trying to enter Japan for the Tokyo Olympics that are to open in just under three weeks. The news was reported Sunday by the Japanese agency Kyodo and cited Japanese health ministry officials. Officials said the athlete was isolated at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Four others traveling along with the athlete were reportedly transferred to a facility near the airport. They had been scheduled to travel to a training camp in Nanto in central Japan. Nanto officials said the training camp was likely to be canceled. The report comes after two members of the Ugandan Olympic delegation tested positive for the coronavirus last month upon arrival in Japan. One tested positive at Narita airport near Tokyo, but the remainder of the team was allowed to travel to a training site. A second member of the delegation was found later to have the virus. The first member who tested positive, after being in quarantine near Narita, again tested positive on Saturday after arriving in the Japanese town of Izumisano, according to a statement from the city. Officials said the person was not believed to be contagious, and no contact tracing would be done. Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the Tokyo organizing committee, said on Friday that more than 500 participants had arrived in Tokyo without incident. About 11,000 Olympic and 4.400 Paralympic athletes will arrive for the Olympics, in addition to tens of thousands of coaches, judges and Olympic officials. Many fear that the influx will drive up COVID-19 cases around the country. Organizers still have not decided whether to allow local fans into venues. Fans from abroad were banned months ago. Almost two weeks ago, organizers said they would allow indoor and outdoor venues to be filled to 50% of capacity up to 10,000. But with new infections rising daily in Tokyo for two weeks, local organizers are expected to meet this week with the International Olympic Committee and others and lower the cap, or remove spectators altogether.
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Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2021 19:55:12 GMT
When it comes to representation of the sexes in Hong Kong sports, a look at the Olympics throws up an interesting statistic – for the second Games in a row, the city will be sending more women than men to compete.
There will be 26 female and 16 male Hongkongers seeking glory in Tokyo, with two men and two women as alternates, according to the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China. This is not a recent trend, however – the number of female Olympic qualifiers from the city has been on the rise since the 1984 Games, from 11 that year to 23 in 2016, while male qualifiers dropped from 36 to 15 over the same period.
As of July 3, Hong Kong had qualified for 22 women’s events and 12 men’s events in Tokyo, as well as three mixed events, according to the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Many of the medal hopes for this year’s Olympics are women, including the likes of cyclist Sarah Lee, swimmer Siobhan Haughey, karate exponent Grace Lau and fencer Vivian Kong.
Vivien Lau Chiang-chu, the vice-chairperson of the Sports Federation and Olympics Committee of Hong Kong, said the disparity in numbers could be the result of many factors, including participation rates in men’s and women’s events as well as athletes’ retirement periods, and did not necessarily mean that male athletes from the city were underperforming.
New coronavirus cases surged to 1,308 in Tokyo on Thursday, a six-month high, as fears rise of a possible dramatic increase that could flood hospitals during the Olympics that start in eight days.
Tokyo is under a fourth state of emergency, which began Monday and requires restaurants and bars to close early and not serve alcohol through the Olympics, which start July 23.
Thursday's tally is the highest since 1,485 were recorded on Jan. 21, when Japan was under an earlier state of emergency, and is also a jump from Wednesday's 1,149.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike noted that the largest increase in serious cases and hospitalizations was among people in their 50s and younger who are largely unvaccinated. She expressed concern about the impact on the medical system as infections are propelled by the more contagious delta strain of the virus.
"We need to stay on alert," Koike said, urging people to minimize outings and stick to basic anti-infection measures "to overcome this very difficult situation."
New daily cases have been steadily climbing since mid-June and experts say they could hit several thousand during the Games.
Japan's slow vaccination rollout has improved dramatically since May as the government desperately pushes to improve the inoculation rate before the Olympics, but is slowing again due to shortages of imported vaccines. The latest government data show just 19.7% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2021 0:46:55 GMT
Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world’s biggest sports event plays out.
The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo.
They’ll all now live in close quarters in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay over the next three weeks.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last week there was “zero” risk of athletes passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village. But that bold statement was already being tested.
The Olympics, which were postponed for a year because of the pandemic, are set to officially open Friday and run until Aug. 8.
The two soccer players and a team video analyst who also tested positive had been moved to “the Tokyo 2020 isolation facility,” the South African Olympic committee said. The rest of the squad members and officials had also been quarantined.
Those positive tests further stoked local fears, with the South African team scheduled to play against host nation Japan in its first game on Thursday.
There has already been consistent opposition from the Japanese public to holding the Olympics during the pandemic, with fears that it could become a super-spreader event and cause a spike in infections among Japanese people.
Bach and the IOC have insisted it will be safe and have forged ahead against most medical advice. The IOC says it sees the Games as a chance to foster international solidarity during difficult times, but the IOC would also lose billions of dollars in broadcast rights if the Games were to be canceled completely.
Also Sunday, Team South Africa confirmed the coach of its rugby sevens team also tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He was also in isolation there and would miss the entire rugby competition, the team said.
And there were other Olympics-related positive tests. Olympic organizers said that another athlete had tested positive, although they were not residing in the Olympic Village. The athlete was not named and only identified as “non-Japanese.”
The first International Olympic Committee official was reported as positive. He recorded a positive test on Saturday when arriving at a Tokyo airport. The IOC confirmed the test and identified him as IOC member Ryu Seung-min of South Korea. He was reportedly being held in isolation, too.
Former distance runner and world championship bronze medalist Tegla Loroupe, the chief of mission of the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, tested positive for COVID-19 before the team was to depart its Doha, Qatar, training base for Tokyo, two people with knowledge of her condition told the AP. The team delayed its arrival in Tokyo while Loroupe is expected to stay behind, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal medical information.
Organizers say that 55 people linked to the Olympics in Japan have reported positive tests since July 1, but that figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the organizing committee.
The British Olympic Association said six athletes and two staff in the track and field squad are isolating at the team’s pre-Olympic base in Yokohama after being deemed close contacts of a person who tested positive following their flight to Japan. U.S. tennis player Coco Gauff didn’t travel to Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases. The Olympics will open under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.
No fans, Japanese or foreign, will be allowed at any of the Olympic sports in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures. A few outlying venues may allow a small number of local fans, but it has effectively become a TV-only event.
About 200 protesters gathered Sunday outside Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, waving signs that read “No Olympics.” It was the latest in a series of small protests against the Games in the last few months.
“This is ignoring human rights and our right to life,” protester Karoi Todo told the AP. “Infections are increasing. To do the Olympics is unforgivable.”
Japanese and IOC organizers hope stringent testing protocols, where athletes, team officials and others are tested daily, will mitigate the risks posed by the thousands of foreigners arriving at once. Visiting athletes, officials and media will be in a “soft quarantine” situation and restricted to the Olympic venues, the village and designated hotels, and will be kept away from the Japanese general public. The IOC also says more than 80% of the athletes set to compete in Tokyo will be vaccinated against COVID-19.
But, despite the assurances, the positive tests five days out from the opening ceremony showed the regulations aren’t — and can’t be — foolproof.
The South African team’s chief medical officer said every member of the team had two negative tests before traveling to Japan “as per Tokyo 2020 requirements.” They also tested negative on arrival in Tokyo, Dr. Phatho Zondi said.
“Team officials and management have followed all relevant Olympic Playbook rules, protocols and procedures throughout the pre-Games and Games arrival routines,” the South African Olympic committee said.
Coach Neil Powell and the entire South Africa rugby squad were held at a quarantine facility after arriving in Japan because of a positive COVID test on their flight, Team South Africa said. They were cleared to leave, only for Powell to test positive a few days later.
Powell had been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in South Africa on May 24, team spokesman JJ Harmse told the AP.
South African Olympic and soccer officials didn’t immediately confirm whether the two soccer players and official who tested positive had been vaccinated, although South Africa’s Olympic committee said in May it would offer all its Olympic athletes the J&J vaccine.
The Olympics were effectively over before they began for the two soccer players and Powell as they would have to remain in quarantine for 14 days under Japanese regulations.
The only way the soccer players might be able to play is if their team made the semifinals.
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2021 22:44:10 GMT
The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee on Tuesday did not rule out cancelling the Olympics if Covid-19 cases spiked, as more athletes tested positive for the virus and sponsors ditched plans to attend Friday’s opening ceremony. Asked at a news conference if the global sporting showpiece might still be cancelled, Toshiro Muto said he would keep an eye on infection numbers and liaise with other organizers if necessary. “We will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases,” said Muto. “We have agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.” A spokesman for Tokyo 2020 later said organizers were “concentrating 100% on delivering successful Games.” WHO chief warns that the world is going into the ‘early stages of another wave’ ‘If anybody is lying here senator, it is you,’ Fauci tells Sen. Paul in heated exchange at Senate hearing Rising Covid-19 cases in Tokyo have cast a large shadow over an event that, having already been postponed last year because of the pandemic, will now take place without spectators. Japan this month decided that participants would compete in empty venues to minimize health risks. There have been 67 cases of Covid-19 infections in Japan among those accredited for the Games since July 1, when many athletes and officials started arriving, organizers said on Tuesday. Japan, whose vaccination program has lagged that of most other developed nations, has recorded more than 840,000 cases and 15,055 deaths and Games host city Tokyo is experiencing a fresh surge, with 1,387 cases recorded on Tuesday. Muto, a former top financial bureaucrat with close ties to Japan’s ruling party, is known for his careful choice of words, while officials are facing a domestic public angry about coronavirus restrictions and concerned over a possible spike in cases triggered by Games attendees arriving from abroad. Organizers, for whom International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said cancelling the event had never been an option, have promised to keep the Games “safe and secure.” But experts see gaps in an Olympic “bubble” that mandates frequent testing and has been designed to limit participants’ movements.
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