Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, January 4th, 200-day countdown to Tokyo Olympics casts new shadows
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Zijiang
January 4 is the 200-day countdown to the Tokyo Olympics, but the epidemic situation across Japan is suddenly severe. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that he is considering issuing an emergency declaration for Tokyo and surrounding areas with severe epidemics. The Olympic Games postponed for one year cast a shadow again.
Japan has been hit by the third wave of epidemics since December last year. The epidemic in the metropolitan area centered on Tokyo is particularly severe. On the last day of 2020, the number of newly confirmed cases in a single day in Tokyo exceeded 1,000 for the first time. Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures surrounding Tokyo are also counties with more severe epidemics in Japan. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and the governors of these severely affected areas have jointly requested the Japanese government to declare a state of emergency again as soon as possible.
Due to the continuous increase in the number of confirmed cases and severe cases, Japan’s medical resources have come under heavy pressure. Nine groups in the Japanese medical community jointly held a press conference two weeks ago and issued the “Declaration of Medical Emergency”, warning that Japan’s medical system is already in the wind. “The candle”, if the new crown epidemic develops according to the current situation, not only the treatment of new crown patients, but also other diseases will not be able to be carried out, and “all necessary medical treatment across the country will not be able to maintain.”
While the domestic epidemic in Japan has brought uncertainty to the Olympics, the negative impact of foreign epidemics on the Olympics is also increasing. Due to the emergence of multiple cases of mutated new crown virus infections in Japan, the Japanese government has announced a suspension of permitting entry of foreigners since the end of December last year. This ban will continue until the end of January. Foreign athletes who could have come to participate in the competition enjoy the convenience of entry It was also temporarily cancelled. The new coach of the Japanese national women’s hockey team, Arnault, originally planned to come to Japan from Belgium to participate in the selection of the national team players. Now it is also affected.
Since September last year, the Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee have done a lot of specific work to prepare for the Olympic Games, including the formulation of epidemic prevention rules, the increase and sharing of budgets, the completion of multiple Olympic venues, and the sponsorship of Olympic sponsors. Renewal and so on, Tokyo also held a four-nation gymnastics invitational tournament, which formulated a template for hosting the Olympic Games under the epidemic. IOC President Bach also visited Japan in mid-November last year, and he and Yoshihide Suga promised to host the Tokyo Olympics as scheduled. Since then, Japanese society has generally been optimistic about the holding of the Olympics.
There are many signs that the Tokyo Olympics has a bottom line. If the epidemic is still serious, the Olympics will be held without spectators or few local spectators. Athletes and other related personnel will compete in a similar “vacuum” situation. Check more, keep isolated, contestants do not contact the outside world, simplify all procedures. As long as the competition can be ensured, the Olympic Games can still be shown to the world through television. But now it seems that if the epidemic is not well controlled and creating such a “vacuum” state, the difficulty is beyond people’s imagination. After all, there are tens of thousands of athletes, coaches, referees and volunteers participating in the Olympics.
News of the infection of Japanese athletes has never stopped since the outbreak, including tennis star Kei Nishikori and famous diving athlete Teruchi Ken who participated in the 5th Olympic Games. Players of the men’s national basketball team have also been infected. World badminton men’s singles player Kento Momota 3 Japan planned to go to Thailand to participate in the game. However, the nucleic acid test at Narita Airport was found to be positive. The Japanese national team was forced to cancel the game plan.
At the press conference held on the 4th, Yoshihide Suga still expressed his determination to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as scheduled, but he was under great pressure. Recent public opinion surveys show that his approval rate has dropped significantly, and the proportion of Japanese people who support the Olympic Games as scheduled is only 30%. According to the original plan, the Tokyo Olympics test competition will be restarted in March, and the Olympic torch will also start a nationwide relay at the end of March. Whether Japan will declare a state of emergency or whether it will fully contain the development of the epidemic is still unknown. If there is still no clear answer to all this before March, the Olympic Games will be cast a thicker shadow.
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Source: Xinhua News Agency
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