Faster, Higher, Stronger | Tokyo Olympics’ Covid-19 mask is slipping as the inevitable draws near

Name: What’s going on with the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo?
Uploaded: 2021-01-06T04:59:12.000Z
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: What’s going on with the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo?

Japanese capital facing a state of emergency but the ‘show’ carries on with thousands of fans at games and events

The postponed Games may have cost untold billions and counting but what price health and safety?

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past a poster for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The event was delayed for one year until July, 2021. Photo: EPA

Jonathan White

Published: 12:59pm, 6 Jan 2021Updated: 12:59pm, 6 Jan 2021

On Monday, the Tokyo Olympics marked 200 days to go until the Games begin.

That will, of course, be 364 days after they were originally meant to open on July 24, 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic claimed the first Olympic Games to be postponed outside a world war.

Monday was also notable because Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he was considering a state of emergency for Tokyo and its surrounds, which could come this week.

At no point has Japan had a lockdown and a second state of emergency would not be that, but it would still be big news at a time when the decision on Tokyo 2020 has to be imminent – it was 122 days before the original opening ceremony that the Games were postponed.

03:33

What’s going on with the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo?

Early in the new year was the promise for a decision from the organisers and it is indeed early in the new year – it began on Monday when they returned to work.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}Faster, Higher, Stronger | Tokyo Olympics’ Covid-19 mask is slipping as the inevitable draws near

Faster, Higher, Stronger | Tokyo Olympics’ Covid-19 mask is slipping as the inevitable draws near