Tokyo – The coronavirus pandemic enables unimaginable measures to be taken at the Olympics until recently. Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto announced on Tuesday that media people who cover the games on site will be watching via GPS. This is necessary to ensure that reporters do not visit areas for which they are not registered. They are registered for areas such as hotels and sports facilities.
This is not so unusual for the athletes, for example Dominic Thiem reported at the US Open last year that you were not allowed to cross a certain area with your accreditation, otherwise a warning signal could be heard.
Meanwhile, a top Japanese virologist and government advisor has spoken out again and emphasized the risk of the Covid-19 virus spreading during the games. Tohoku University professor Hiroshi Oshitani is responsible for the “three-C-rule” in Japan: one should avoid closed spaces, close contact and crowds.
“The government and the OK as well as the IOC always say that they will hold safe games. But everyone knows there is a risk. It is 100% impossible to play the games with zero risk and spread the infection in Japan or other countries to spread “, so Oshitani to the London” Times “.
There are countries with few cases and some that do not have any virus variants. “We should make the Olympics an opportunity for the virus to spread to these countries.”
A former Olympic participant and now a health expert disagreed with the virologist. “There will be cases, but having a case or a few doesn't mean it was wrong,” said Tara Kirk Sell, a professor at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (APA, June 8th, 2021)
