Japan Covid: 100 days until the 2021 Tokyo Games, but Japan has vaccinated less than 1% of its population

Holthus said supporting the Games should be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. “But now it’s just a very dangerous experience,” he said.

In a statement to CNN, Tokyo 2020 organizers said they were preparing to hold “a safe Games without assuming there will be a vaccine and even no vaccines.”

“On the other hand, we hope that the vaccines will be administered correctly at home and abroad and that, therefore, the infection will be reduced as a whole,” the statement said.

Slow release of vaccines

“They say elderly citizens should be vaccinated in June, but in reality, even the medical staff treating Covid has not yet been vaccinated,” said Oka, of Saitama Medical University, and he added that he did not believe the June vaccination target would be met.

International spectators have been banned from the Games in an attempt to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading to the event. But more than 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries are expected to take part.

Without plans to vaccinate athletes, the tens of thousands of volunteers involved have little chance of protection.

Holthus said Tokyo 2020 president Hashimoto Seiko told volunteers during a Zoom call that she trusted “your smile” to make the Olympics a success, a particularly discordant statement that everyone would wear masks.

“(He was told):” Your smile will make the Olympics exist “and you wonder, are you kidding?” said Holthus, who plans to volunteer as a ticket collector.

A volunteer, here attended an 80-minute conference on infectious disease control for Games volunteers, said a Japanese infectious disease expert said they should not count on vaccination before the event.

“(She said) unless she grows up, there won’t be enough time for ordinary people to get vaccinated,” said the volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being excluded from her role at the Olympics. She said it I felt angry and scared after the presentation.

The volunteer, who had participated in previous Olympics, said she was considering giving up unless all the volunteers were vaccinated. “Not to do so is to show reckless disregard for our lives and an optimal safe environment that Japan, as a host country, is obliged to provide,” he said.

Tokyo 2020 did not answer questions about the content of the presentation made to the volunteers.

Questions about athletes

Even countries with almost no infection have struggled to hold major sporting events during the pandemic.

For Japan, where there were 2,112 new cases on Tuesday, it will be a bigger challenge.

But according to the IOC document, athletes will not have to quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Japan unless they have breached the country’s Covid-19 precautions or have been potentially exposed to the virus.

During the Games, participants will be “tested for Covid-19 at different intervals” and all athletes and visitors will be assigned a “Covid-19 Liaison Officer.”

International guests have been asked to leave their accommodation only to “go to official gaming sites and limited additional sites,” a list of which will be published in the second game book, which will be published this month.

Hugs and five years should be avoided and no public transportation should be used. You must wear a face mask at all times.

The organizers of Tokyo 2020 did not answer questions about how social distancing measures would be maintained in the Olympic people.

A super popular Olympic event?

While athletes from the Olympic Village will have given all their negative results before arriving in Japan, they will inevitably come into contact with tens of thousands of untested volunteers who will travel between the Olympic venues and their homes.

In response to a question about whether the events of Tokyo 2020 would be postponed due to Covid, the statement stated that the situation was “changing every moment”.

Holthus said that in addition to the hand sanitizer and two face masks, Games officials had offered volunteers a “health diary” in which they could record their own health status.

“They will be concentrated groups of people from all over the world, mixing. What if there is a cluster that develops in one of its Olympics? What if it comes from one of us?” she said.

Oka, a professor at Saitama Medical University, shared the concerns of the volunteers and said the Games could allow the spread of dangerous variants of Covid-19 not only across Japan but also around the world.

Oka said he was also concerned that Japan’s already stretched hospital system could not cope if there was a sudden influx of athletes and volunteers infected with the virus. “As an infectious disease specialist, I cannot approve of holding the Games in a situation where not enough vaccines have been made and enough countermeasures have been put in place,” he said.

In a statement to CNN, the organizing body of Tokyo 2020 said it had “high hopes” that the situation of Covid-19 in Japan would improve before the Olympics. “We will continue to work closely with these parties as we prepare to offer safe Games this summer,” the statement said.

Olympics volunteer Philbert Ono said he trusted the government and the IOC to keep athletes and volunteers safe.

“The Japanese love to witness history. And you know these Olympics are very, very historic … they’re going to be very different Olympics. And that’s another thing I’m looking forward to,” he said. . “I just want to see how they do it.”

But Holthus said he did not believe the Games should move forward with the current state of readiness, which was a “recipe for a more popular event.”

“We can’t even imagine how bad it could be,” he said. “But the damage will be done once the Games are held. You can’t go back once everyone flies.”