COVID-19: Thousands of Japanese volunteers withdraw from Olympics

About 10,000 volunteers pulled out of the sporting event. Public opinion is concerned about the rise in infections. Vaccination campaign remains slow.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Thousands of volunteers have decided to drop out of the Olympics following the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Although 10,000 out of 80,000 registered volunteers have quit, Toshiro Muto, chief executive of Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, said that their withdrawal will not impact the Games, which are set to start on 23 July, since foreign spectators will not be allowed into the country.

The daily average of new coronavirus cases in the last week has been below 3,000; according to data from John Hopkins University, Japan has reported a total of 756,000 cases with more than 13,330 deaths.

Despite public concern, preparations for the Olympic Games are going ahead as planned, this according to Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2021 Organising Committee. “It is impossible to postpone it again,” he told Nikkan Sports, a Japanese newspaper, yesterday.

“People have had enough of the 'stay home' request,” said Shigeru Omi, Japan's top COVID-19 adviser, speaking today in Parliament. “Unless (the government) comes up with something new in this critical phase it's going to be impossible” to prevent the risk of contagion.

Kaori Yamaguchi, a former Olympic medallist in judo, also criticised the government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

She slammed the Organising Committee and the IOC for their decision to “avoiding dialogue”. The IOC “seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important.”

For Dr Naoto Ueyama, a physician, head of the Japan Doctors Union, the Olympics risk becoming an incubator for “a Tokyo variant”.

The newspaper Asahi Shimbun has also called for the Games to be cancelled,

The only solution would be to vaccinate, but the campaign is proceeding slowly.

Even if the country succeeded in meeting its goal of fully vaccinating all 36 million elderly by the end of July — an overly optimistic goal for some — about 70 per cent of the population would still be exposed.

At present, 500,000 people are being vaccinated a day, half of the government's stated goal.

Meanwhile, Japanese athletes have started to be vaccinated, but it is unclear to what extent foreign athletes will.

• japan
• tokyo olympics
• covid-19
• risks
• opposition
• volunteers
• withdrawal