Categories: Sports

Olympic Staff, Volunteers Vaccinated As Tokyo Games Near

A lone protester (L) holds up a sign in reference to recent comments made by Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori, next to a display of the Olympic Rings outside the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo on February 11, 2021. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

 

 

Thousands of Olympic volunteers and officials began receiving vaccines in Tokyo on Friday, five weeks before the Games, as experts warned it would be safest to hold the event without fans.

With just over a month until the July 23 opening ceremony, organisers are in the home stretch and scrambling to finalise virus rules and get participants vaccinated in time.

They also face a controversial and difficult decision over how many domestic fans, if any, will be in the stands for the pandemic-postponed Games.

Japanese Olympic athletes have already begun receiving vaccines, and the rollout expanded on Friday to Olympic staff, volunteers and others who will interact with overseas participants.

The International Olympic Committee has donated enough Pfizer/BioNTech doses for 40,000 people, including airport staff, local media and Olympic referees.

Chika Hirai, director of doping control for Tokyo 2020, was among those being vaccinated on Friday and said she had some niggling concerns about virus risks before getting jabbed.

“Now that I will be vaccinated, I will feel a little more reassured doing my job,” she told reporters.

“Many people from abroad, including inspectors from my field, are coming to Japan after having been vaccinated themselves. I feel more relieved that we also won’t be the source of the virus spread.”

The jabs are separate from those being used in Japan’s national vaccine rollout, which began slowly but has picked up pace lately, with over six percent of the population now fully inoculated.

The vaccinations come as organisers work to convince a sceptical public that the biggest international event since the pandemic began will be safe.

This week they have rolled out new virus rulebooks, warning athletes they could be barred from the Games if they violate regulations on mask-wearing or daily testing.

But they face a difficult decision over whether to allow spectators into the stands, with a group of leading medical experts who advise the government saying Friday a closed-door Games would be safest.

“Having no spectators would create the least risk in terms of the spread of infections inside venues, so we think this would be ideal,” they wrote in a report submitted to Tokyo 2020 organisers and the government.

– ‘Stricter standards’ –
The number of fans at the Games will be limited by government virus measures, which in Tokyo currently cap spectators at 5,000 people or 50 percent capacity, whichever is smaller.

That rule is scheduled to stay in place until July 11, even though a virus state of emergency will end on Sunday.

After July 11, the cap will be raised to 10,000 people or 50 percent capacity, but the experts urged Olympic organisers to “impose stricter standards” if they allow fans.

They also want limits on spectators from outside the area.

And they warned organisers should be prepared to reverse course and ban fans if the infection situation or pressure on the medical system worsens during the Games.

A final decision on local fans is expected next week, with local media reports saying a 10,000-person cap was most likely.

Overseas fans have already been barred from attending for the first time in Olympic history as organisers try to tamp down infection fears.

Tokyo 2020 said Friday they have further slashed the number of overseas participants coming to Japan for the Olympics and Paralympics to 53,000, not including around 15,500 athletes.

That is down from original plans for 177,000 people, including officials, sponsors and media, they said.

Tokyo 2020 also said Friday they had received offers from more than 100 overseas volunteer medical staff.

The foreign volunteers facilitated by the IOC are meant to help ensure the Games do not place extra pressure on Japan’s medical system.

Nebianet Usaini

Disqus Comments Loading...
Share
Published by
Nebianet Usaini

Recent Posts

CBN Pegs Minimum Capital Base For Banks At ₦500bn 

The apex bank said the new minimum capital base for commercial banks with national authorisation…

1 hour ago

Soldiers’ Killing Oil-Related, DSS Should Lead Probe — Urhobo Leader

The Urhobo leader called for an independent probe into the circumstances that led to the…

1 hour ago

Tyrants Won’t Become Leaders In Parliamentary Democracy — Utomi 

The thought leader noted that thriving democracies in the world practice parliamentary democracy.

2 hours ago

Tinubu Appoints Abdullahi Bello As CCB Chairman 

By the presidential pronouncement, Abdullahi Bello replaces Aliyu Kankia, who has been the acting Chairman…

3 hours ago

NAFDAC Cracks Down On Fake Bottled Water Syndicate In Rivers

The illicit scheme involved affixing pre-printed Eva labels onto the bottles and sealing them with…

5 hours ago

Military Declares Eight Wanted Over Murder Of Soldiers

The list was released hours after the slain soldiers were buried in a ceremony attended…

5 hours ago