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With many residents of Tokyo still worried about the safety of hosting the Olympics during the pandemic, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach addressed the state of the games, which he said will be, ” safe and secure.”
Bach spoke at the last Coordination Commission meeting for the Olympics and said he believes more than 80 percent of people inside the Olympic Village will be vaccinated, according to an Inside the Games report.
He also promised that the IOC was prepared to handle having extra medical staff in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past few months, the rise of opposition from local residents has grown. A petition in favor of canceling the Olympics altogether has seen more than 350,000 signatures.
“In order to have the Games succeed, we must solve different problems and speed up our preparations,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told the Kyodo News.
But the Olympic and Tokyo officials have backed the games, stating they will go on as planned. The Opening Ceremony is scheduled for July 23.
“At this moment, already as many as 75 per cent of the residents of the Olympic Village are already vaccinated or have secured vaccination in time before the Olympic Games,” Bach said at the meeting. “But our efforts do not stop there. We have good reasons to believe that this figure will be well above 80 per cent. The most important principle is very clear – the Olympic Village is a safe place, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be organised in a safe way.”
The pandemic has continued to see high numbers in Japan, especially in its largest city. Tokyo is one of several areas currently under state of emergency measures until May 31 after a rise in COVID-19 cases earlier this month.
The IOC Coordination Commission meeting will last three days.
You forgot about that letter from the 6000 doctors asking for the games to be canceled.