the alert for the Corriere.it Games rises

Two athletes residing inside the Olympic village tested positive for coronavirus. This was announced by the organizing committee of the Games, without specifying the nationality of the sportsmen

The first case of positivity inside the Tokyo village on Saturday. The first member of the International Olympic Committee (CIO) positive for Covid, always on Saturday. And the first three athletes – two in the village, one out – on Sunday morning.

Less than a week before the inauguration ceremony of the troubled XXXII Summer Olympics, Tokyo 2020 (for reasons of brand and marketing the name remained the original one despite the postponement) already has a very strong headache.

The fogy Cio Ryu Seung-min, president of the South Korean Table Tennis Federation, two swabs negative before departure for Japan and vaccinated: remained in the control mesh at Narita airport, he was immediately isolated.

Less certainty about the positive in the village, foreigner and non-athlete, according to the Japanese press, and still very few about athletes, of which – according to initial information – we only know that they should not be Japanese: anti Covid tests are daily, the airtight bubble prepared by the organizers of Tokyo, evidently, permeable.

This series of news, despite the assurances of the IOC number one Thomas Bach (They are safe games, the anti Covid measures are working), the apprehension of the local population, strongly opposed to the Games, in view of the official start.

In total, yesterday there were 15 cases of positivity to Covid-19, linked in some way to the Olympics: this is the highest figure since July 1st, when this type of monitoring began. The count does not include the athletes who are finalizing the preparation in the various retreats around Japan (the Italian athletics, for example, are training on the Waseda University campus in Tokorozawa, about thirty kilometers from the capital).

Of yesterday’s 15 cases, seven are workers, six Olympics staff members and two media representatives. Eight come from abroad while seven reside in Japan.

Since July 1st, the number of Covid-19 infections registered and disclosed by the organizing committee has been 45.

The state of emergency in Tokyo

Meanwhile, out of the Olympic bubble in Tokyo, where the state of emergency remains, things are not going better.

The latest official survey in the Japanese megacity speaks of 1,410 almost, for the fourth consecutive day it therefore rises above one thousand mark. It was since January 21, when 1,485 were registered, that such a high number was not reached.

In the country – which still has a very low percentage of vaccinated people – concern remains high that the event, even if it takes place behind closed doors, without Japanese or foreign fans, could become a super-diffuser of the virus.

Fears related above all to Delta variant, highly contagious.

Japanese public health experts predict that the contagion curve could rise to over 2,400 a few days after the end of the Olympics, scheduled for 8 August. Bach flashes a smile on the piano and does not lose the proverbial optimism: We will prove that they are safe games, despite the pandemic. Best wishes.

–