Tokyo Games face ‘real problems’ due to Covid-19, says senior Olympic official
- The IOC and Japanese government took the unprecedented decision to delay the Games, which had been due to start in July, for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak
Coates, Australia’s Olympic chief and head of the International Olympic Committee’s inspectorate for Tokyo, said organisers had to assume there would be no vaccine for Covid-19, or none in sufficient quantity, in time for the Games.
“We’ve got real problems because we’ve got athletes having to come from 206 different nations,” Coates told a roundtable held by Australia’s News Corp.
“Yesterday, there was 10,000 new cases in Brazil. Very few countries are as advanced in coping with this as (Australia).
“(Japanese) prime minister (Shinzo) Abe says Games can only happen in 2021. We can’t postpone it again and we have to assume that there won’t be a vaccine or, if there is a vaccine, it won’t be sufficient to share around the world.”
In March, the IOC and Japanese government took the unprecedented decision to delay the Games, which had been due to start in July, for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak.