The IOC’s vice president said they intend to move forward with the games even if local health authorities say not to because of Covid-19.
The International Olympics Committee still intends to hold the Tokyo Olympics as planned even if Tokyo and other areas of Japan are still under a state of emergency due to Covid-19, IOC vice president John Coates said Friday, as the games’ future comes under greater scrutiny amid the host country’s coronavirus surge. 38,390. That’s the number of new Covid-19 cases in Japan over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University, as areas like Osaka face dangerous surges that have strained the country’s healthcare system. Cases have been going down somewhat, however, and the seven-day average of daily Covid-19 infections in Tokyo declined from 933.9 last week to 704 as of Thursday. IOC member Richard Pound told Japan’s JiJi Press that a final decision on whether the Olympics will be canceled or move forward would come by the end of June. “Before the end of June, you really need to know, yes or no,” Pound said, according to the Associated Press.
