The Games of the XXXII Olympiad that were postponed last summer are still planning to go ahead this July 28 through August 8 in Tokyo. The Japanese medial establishment, however, has expressed concern about welcoming an estimated 78,000 people from 200 nations, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
Initially, 10,000 doctors, nurses, and medical staff was to be on hand during the games, but that number has been reduced to 7,000 as the country continues to deal with coronavirus outbreaks.
While Japan was initially lauded for its ability to keep the spread of COVID-19 to a minimum, it has seen its cities shut down in declared states of emergencies three times, most recently last Friday. There are approximately 4,000 new infections daily in Japan, and the rollout of the vaccine is considered one of the slowest in the industrialized world with only 2.4 percent of the population fully inoculated. There have been 13,000 coronavirus deaths in the nation of 126 million.
Last week the United States issued a travel warning to Japan, saying that “even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading [COVID-19 variants].”
Spectators from overseas had already been barred from attending the games in April. A whopping 600,000 tickets had to be refunded to international visitors, as were an additional 30,000 for the subsequent Paralympic Games starting in August.
But even keeping it local is causing worry. Susumu Morita, secretary-general of the Japan Federation of Medical Worker’s Unions, said there were “strong reservations about hosting the Olympics at the expense of the lives and health of patients and nurses,” according to Bloomberg’s report.
Satoru Arai, director of the Tokyo Medical Association, added that “there are countries which are still struggling to contain the pandemic and it’s extremely risky that people from such countries are entering Japan.” He bluntly concluded that “hospital capacity will be compromised if we send staff to the Olympics.”
Details about limiting domestic spectators are still being worked out, even this close to the opening ceremony.
“It will be difficult to decide on the maximum spectator limit without monitoring the situation,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the organizing committee, said at a press conference.
Opposition to holding the games at all has been on the rise in Japan, with anti-Olympics demonstrations and increasing pressure coming from business leaders. The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers and an Olympic sponsor, said the event should be cancelled in an editorial.
For NBCUniversal, however, much is riding on the Olympics to boost its streaming service Peacock. In April, the platform boasted “four live studio shows every day” and what will be essentially round-the-clock coverage of the international competition. That is, of course, if the games are still held.
For now, Japan’s Primer Minister Yoshihide Suga is sticking with his refrain that “we are working to make sure that the games will be safe and secure by taking all possible measures to prevent infections among athletes and related parties.”
The final decision on whether or not to cancel is actually up to the International Olympic Committee. One of the senior members of the group, Dick Pound, said that even if the Japanese government called it off, the show would go on. The IOC later walked back Pound’s rhetoric. “Decisions have always been and will always be taken in full agreement of all parties,” the group said in a statement.
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