Athlete and Staff Members Test Covid-19 Positive Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics

Athlete and five contractors associated with the Tokyo Olympics tests covid positive

Friday, 16th July 2021

Days before the Tokyo Olympics are about to commence, an athlete along with five workers tested positive for Covid-19, according to the organisers of the 2020 event.

The new cases of infection that were reported on Thursday, have raised concerns among all those involved with the games due to begin next week, about the spread of the virus during the course of the global event.

Not disclosing any further details about those infected, the organisers wrote on their website Tokyo 2020 that six people have tested positive for the coronavirus on July 13 and 14, which includes an athlete and several contractors.

According to a local Japanese broadcaster, the concerned athlete was observing the requisite 14-day isolation period and has refrained from moving to the Athlete’s Village situated in Tokyo. This is the venue where all the 11,000 participants of the Summer Games will be put up during the entire tenure of the event starting July 23 until August 8.

The broadcaster also stated, “first time that a foreign athlete who is staying at or was heading to a facility managed by the organising committee has been found to have the coronavirus.”

The news came out after eight members of staff at a hotel in Japan that is hosting Brazil’s Olympic judo team, tested positive for the virus during a routine screening. However, an official said that members of the Brazilian Olympic delegation have been securely kept in a bio-bubble, and none of them have come in contact with any of the infected staff from the hotel.

There was also news on Wednesday of a masseur associated with the Russian women’s rugby sevens team, who has had to be hospitalized after testing positive.

A member of the staff working in the Russian team who are being hosted in a western Japanese town called Munakata, said their delegation comprising of 16 athletes and 10 staffers, who landed in the country on July 10 have been kept consciously isolated from any local official or resident.

According to the official, the rest of the members of the Russian team are now in quarantine in their assigned accommodation and will be tested on Thursday. If they test negative for the virus, they will soon after begin training.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV