Coronavirus: Tokyo posts record cases; police block Sydney anti-lockdown protest

The Olympic host city logged a record 4,058 coronavirus infections on Saturday

Elsewhere, Singapore tightened border measures for travellers from Australia and China’s Jiangsu province after increases in Covid-19 cases there

6-MIN READ6-MIN

Pedestrians cross a street in Shibuya district, Tokyo. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:59pm, 31 Jul 2021Updated: 10:52pm, 31 Jul 2021

Newly reported Covid-19 cases in Olympic host city Tokyo surged to a record high of 4,058 on Saturday, the metropolitan government said, exceeding 4,000 for the first time and overshadowing the Games.

The record comes a day after Japan decided to extend states of emergency to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka to the end of August in light of the recent spike in infections.

Amid intensifying concerns, Tokyo Olympics organisers said on Saturday they had revoked accreditation of a Games-related person or people for leaving the athletes’ village for sightseeing, a violation of measures imposed to hold the event safely amid the pandemic.

The organisers did not disclose how many people had their accreditation revoked, if the person or people involved were athletes, or when the violation took place.

“We took away accreditation as we believe going out of the athletes’ village for sightseeing is something that should not happen,” Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya told a daily briefing.

This is the first time accreditation has been revoked since the start of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23. Without it, one cannot enter any Olympic facilities.

Residents of the athletes’ village are not allowed to go out for non-Games related purposes, such as sightseeing.

Twenty-one people working at the Olympics tested positive on Saturday, none of them athletes.