TOKYO
The upcoming Tokyo Olympics will be held without spectators, Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa confirmed on Thursday. As per Kyodo News, the decision was taken looking at the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in the region. The decision of barring spectators was agreed on at a meeting attended by International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach and representatives of the four bodies, the organising committee, the International Paralympic Committee, as well as the Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments.
Japan PM Yoshihide Suga on Thursday made a decision to place Tokyo under the fourth state of emergency for the duration of the upcoming Olympics to curb a recent rise in Covid-19 cases.
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed last year and are now scheduled to take place from July 23. The state of emergency will come into force on July 12 and will remain till August 22. “We are hoping to keep people from moving around during the summer break and the Bon holidays until vaccinations move further along,” Kyodo News quoted Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of the nation’s Covid-19 response, as saying.
According to Kyodo News, the Japanese government had initially planned to keep Tokyo under a quasi-state of emergency but had to change the decision due to a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
