Read more about Tokyo Olympics: Spectators also barred from outlying venues amid Covid on Business Standard. All fans from abroad were banned months ago.
Two more prefectures outside the immediate area have decided to bar fans from attending Olympic events because of rising coronavirus infections, Olympic organizers confirmed on Saturday with the pandemic-delayed games opening in just under two weeks. organizers and the IOC earlier in the week barred all fans from venues in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures. They make up the overwhelming majority of Olympic venues, although a smattering of outlying areas were allowed initially to have limited attendance. All fans from abroad were banned months ago. Now, two prefectures that were permitted to have fans have backed out of those plans. Fukushima prefecture in northeastern has decided to hold its baseball and softball events without spectators. It has been joined by the northern prefecture of Hokkaido, which will hold soccer games without fans at the Sapporo Dome. «Many people including children have been looking forward to the games, and I’m very sorry to take away their chance of watching baseball and softball at the stadium,» Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori said Saturday. «It was a very tough decision to make.» Fukushima was the early focus of the Olympics, trying to shine a light on recovery efforts in an area devastated in 2011 by an earthquake, tsunami, and the subsequent meltdown of three nuclear reactors.
