May 27, 2021
Medical workers wearing protective face masks.
Reuters
The head of a Japanese doctors union on Thursday (May 27) warned holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, with tens of thousands of people gathering from around the world, could lead to the development of a new “Olympic” strain of the coronavirus.
Although Japan has repeatedly pledged to hold a safe and secure 2020 Olympics in Tokyo after a year-long postponement, it is struggling to contain a fourth wave of the pandemic and preparing to extend a state of emergency that covers much of the country.
Japanese officials, Olympics organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have all vowed the Games will go ahead, albeit under strict virus prevention measures. Foreign spectators have already been banned and a decision on domestic viewers is expected next month.
Several parts of Japan are under virus states of emergency over a surge in infections, and the public is largely opposed to holding the Games this summer.
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose above 168 million on Thursday, as China hit back at President Joe Biden's push to have U.S. intelligence investigate the origins of the coronavirus, amid renewed concerns it may have come from a laboratory in Wuhan.
A physician representing a Japanese medical body says the IOC and the Japanese government had underestimated the risks of bringing 15,000 athletes into the country.