Despite a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in Japan, the organisers of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics on Friday have ruled out any possibility of cancellation or postponement of the showpiece event.
“There are a lot of concerns, but as the organizing committee of Tokyo 2020, we aren’t thinking of cancelling the Games,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the organising committee, said on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of Japan’s ruling party LDP, had said that a cancellation of the event could be an option if the Covid cases rise further.
Nikai, the No. 2 person in the LDP party, was asked in an interview if cancellation was still an option to which he replied: “Of course.”
He added that if the Tokyo Games caused a surge in infections “there would be no meaning to having the Olympics.”
However, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga later issued a statement on the same day and said that there was no change in the government’s position “to do everything possible to achieve safe Olympic Games”.
In March 2020, the event was postponed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and local organizers due to the pandemic.
The postponed Olympics is scheduled to begin on July 23.