Tokyo: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) of President Thomas Bach on Tuesday praised medical workers and volunteers to make Tokyo games in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic and said the event would send a powerful message “Peace and Solidarity”.
The game, was postponed last year because the novel Coronavirus Pandemi began on Friday but would be without a spectator after the Japanese decision earlier this month to leave Venuze to minimize the risk of infection.
“When Japan departed 10 years ago to bring the Olympic Spirit back to Tokyo …
none of us could imagine unprecedented challenges we would face,” Bach said at the opening of the IOC session, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Yoshihide Suga Japan presents.
“We can only overcome all of these challenges for the Olympics because for the past eight years we enjoy trusted partnerships (with Japan).
We can always count on you,” he said.
However, when the Covid-19 case rises in Tokyo, public concerns have grown that hold events with tens of thousands of foreign athletes, officials and journalists can accelerate the infection rate in the Japanese capital and introduce more infectious or more deadly variants.
Japan has recorded more than 838,000 Covid-19 cases and around 15,000 deaths.
Host City Tokyo confirmed 727 cases on Monday, and the average moving seven days more than 1,100.
About one third of the Japanese population has at least one shot of vaccination and about 22% is fully vaccinated.
There are also 58 cases of positive cases related to the Olympics that have been recorded since athletes and officials began to arrive in Japan.
The days before the opening ceremony in Tokyo, 68% of respondents in the Asahi newspaper poll this week expressed doubts about the Olympic organizers’ ability to control Coronavirus infection, with 55% saying they opposed the match continuously.
“We can only be together today because of heroic efforts from all doctors, nurses, health workers and many volunteers around the world,” said Bach.
Bach said that canceling global sports extravaganza was never an option for organizers.
“The IOC never left athletes.
Therefore, we made an unprecedented decision to postpone the game (last year).
Today I can admit that we don’t know how complicated this is,” he said.
Suga – who had seen the support slide of his support since he served last September, mostly because the handling of the promised pandemic organizers would apply all steps needed to have a safe game even without spectators.
“But the importance of Tokyo will not be reduced by this,” Suga said in a brief address.
“Now it’s time to unite.” Bach also said that the Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be in Tokyo on Wednesday to “share his thoughts with us in the main speech”.