FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the security fence of Olympic Stadium (National Stadium) built for Tokyo Olympic Games, that have been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan June 11, 2021. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski
Olympic teams should be immediately isolated if they arrive in Japan with a person infected with coronavirus, a Games official said Sunday, after members of Uganda’s squad tested positive.
Hidemasa Nakamura, a senior Tokyo 2020 Games official, said that it is “highly probable that people will come into close contact with an infected person if they travel on the same plane.”
“We’ll immediately prepare a system to isolate and test them even before making a determination (whether they had close contact with an infected person),” he said in a program discussing coronavirus measures by public broadcaster NHK.
His comments come after two of the nine-member Ugandan Olympic delegation tested positive for the virus following their arrival this month.
Even after one person was confirmed infected during screening at Tokyo’s Narita airport on June 19, the rest of the team traveled on a chartered bus to Izumisano in Osaka prefecture.
Local health authorities later determined that the entire team — as well as eight other people, including host-city officials and bus drivers — had been in close contact with the two infected individuals, Kyodo News reported.
Public opinion has been firmly opposed to holding the Games this year over pandemic fears, though recent polls suggest opposition may be softening.
No overseas fans will be allowed and domestic spectators will be capped at 10,000 per event.
Japan has seen a comparatively small virus outbreak, with around 14,600 deaths, despite avoiding harsh lockdowns.
An initially slow vaccine drive has picked up, with nearly nine percent of the population inoculated.